Indonesia Calls for Stronger Regional Cooperation on Food Security

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia has urged Asia-Pacific nations to deepen regional collaboration under the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) framework, stressing the importance of collective action to safeguard food systems amid mounting global pressures.

The call was delivered during the 38th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC38) in Brunei Darussalam, where ministers from across the region gathered to negotiate priorities and strengthen cooperation.

Representing Indonesia, Acting Director General of Plantations at the Ministry of Agriculture Ali Jamil highlighted the country’s proposal to explore a sub-regional platform for food system transformation in Southeast Asia.

The initiative would enhance coordination, knowledge exchange, and financing, including through South-South Cooperation. Ali emphasized that Indonesia is pursuing structural reforms and stronger governance to place farmers at the center of agricultural transformation.

Agriculture, he noted, remains vital to Indonesia’s economy, contributing around 14 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supporting the livelihoods of more than 40 million people -- most of them smallholders.

Similar dynamics exist across Asia-Pacific, where small-scale farmers make up 80 percent of producers and account for 54 percent of global agricultural and fisheries output.

The conference comes at a critical time, with agrifood systems under strain from climate change, geopolitical tensions, and fragile supply chains. Opening the conference, Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah of Brunei Darussalam urged member states to work together to strengthen resilience.

“We meet at an important time. Food systems across the region are under increasing pressure; climate change has affected how we grow and produce food, natural ecosystems are stressed, and supply chains remain vulnerable,” he said, as quoted by Antara.

He warned that ongoing conflicts in the Middle East continue to disrupt global trade and energy markets.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu echoed these concerns, pointing to rising energy and fertilizer costs, declining agricultural export revenues to the Middle East, and persistent uncertainty linked to the 2026 conflict in the region.

He also underscored the intensifying long-term impacts of climate change, including droughts, floods, extreme weather, and land degradation. “We must build resilience from within, because no external assistance will be sustainable without our collective will,” Qu said.

While Asia-Pacific has made remarkable progress in productivity, trade, and innovation, he noted that the region still faces the highest levels of food insecurity globally.

Qu urged participants to engage in financing and investment discussions for agrifood systems, a central theme of APRC38’s roundtable dialogues. ***