Southeast Asia

Virginia Tech researchers have created a modeling system that tracks the tomato leafminer along trade routes, enabling warnings to be issued for the first time to countries bracing for invasion by the pest that threatens tomato crops worldwide. Through the modeling system, researchers showed that the insects spread in Nepal along the trucking routes of tomato shipments. The models not only… Read more

HAVE you ever taken the time to look at the ingredients or nutrition labels on your packaged foods? I know it may seem tedious and can be downright confusing, so many don’t do it. Truth be told, advertising for food is very under-regulated, especially when generic terms such as “healthy”, “wholesome”, “nourishing” and “energizing” — just to name a few — are used to… Read more

Asia is home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s malnourished. But it’s not the booming elderly population feeling the pinch. It’s not the rapidly expanding middle class. In this fractured world we live in (the words of Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum last month, in reference to both geopolitical fault lines and the stresses building up within societies and… Read more

Alarmingly, two out of five adults in the Asia-Pacific region are either overweight or obese. Facing declining markets in Western countries, multinational food companies are targeting Africa, Asia, and Latin America as new consumers of packaged foods, in a move that may worsen the global epidemic of chronic illness related to diabetes. Governments are striking back at obesity risk… Read more

We all know that maintaining a balanced diet is important for our well-being. After all, getting enough nutrients is what keeps us healthy and active. However, as we also know, many people are not eating the right foods. For many, it’s simply a decision to stick with foods they enjoy but aren’t too healthy. This is leading to an increase in non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks… Read more

A GOOD number of scientists, rural development workers and opinion writers have been publishing their positions on how to uplift the world’s poor since World War 1 ended in 1918. World War 2 which started in 1939 and ended in 1945 resulted in massive rehabilitation but the increase of the global “poor” was bigger. And the United Nations failed to attain its 2015 “millennial goals”. The… Read more

Southeast Asians eat twice the global average of fish and seafood, but falling catches, unsustainable aquaculture and poor governance have imperiled the crucial industry. Escalating tensions over fishing rights in the South China Sea may be a harbinger of stormy seas ahead as more of Southeast Asia’s trawler fleet casts its half-empty nets in contested waters. Indonesia’s navy fired… Read more

Agriculture and food production seem to be under constant threat from climate change, policy failure and new diseases in meeting the demand of an ever-increasing world population. Yet, innovative endeavours and technological advancements have given hope that adaptation, invention and international cooperation can overcome the looming challenges, with positive implications for ASEAN’s… Read more

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is close to finalising its five-year action plan for 2018 to 2022 that promotes agricultural-based value chains across the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), an area that includes Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, the regional development bank announced yesterday. “The GMS strategy and action plan would… Read more

The Philippines and other Asean countries would be able to cut poverty faster if they would cut tariffs on rice and eliminate trade barriers, according to the latest  study released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and  Development (OECD). In its recent study, titled “OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026”, the OECD said an Asean integrated rice market, where… Read more