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The Indo-Pacific is at the frontline of the climate crisis. The need for food and water security, alongside economic resilience, is paramount for this region. To deliberate on the subject, Erin Watson, Founder and Managing Director of Baker & York, the moderator, posed a question to the panel: how can we make the water and food systems more resilient in the Indo-Pacific region in the face of increasing climate change threats?
Coming from Germany, Silvia Bender, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, shared her unique perspective based on her ministerial and government experience. She started by accepting that, firstly, there is no uniform template to address the food and water security issue globally and, secondly, that the Indo-Pacific is more vulnerable to climate change than Europe. Following this, she shared Germany’s solution through Agroecology as a principle that aims to make farming more resilient against climate change. She also shared that Germany is working in India to replicate this principle to make agriculture more resilient for changing weather patterns, improving soil health, and promoting organic farming and crop rotation. Claire Alembik, an Investment Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, highlighted their three-pronged, multi-faceted approach to the food sector. The first aspect focuses on improving productivity, which includes enhancing agricultural inputs' efficiency, improving farm equipment quality, and developing drought-tolerant seeds through policy and private-sector financing. The second aspect focuses on promoting sustainable farming models, like greenhouse horticulture, forest tree plantation, and aquaculture, and for this, more investment in the supply chain and rural infrastructure, like food distribution and storage and agri logistics, is needed. The last one highlights the importance of nature-based solutions and the need to develop policies around this in the region, which are currently missing. She concluded by emphasising the importance of private sector involvement in the sector, along with policy intervention.
Nilanjan Ghosh, Vice-President, Observer Research Foundation, started with a provocative statement stating that Water and Food security are not correlated and that food security can be achieved with the judicious use of water resources. He emphasised the importance of less water-consuming crops, moving towards regenerative agriculture, and green water practices (land levelling and drip irrigation) to enhance the sustainability of agriculture, supply chains, farmers' earnings, and more nutritious crops. Sharing some crucial interventions by the Government of India, he highlighted the criticality of policy intervention, like giving more MSP for less water-consuming crops like millet as opposed to others, such as paddy, etc. Reflecting some of the private sector research, Robert Kaan, President, Asia Pacific, Corteva Agriscience, intervention focused on technological and policy support to farmers by the government. He added that many current problems could be resolved with technological innovation and research, such as enabling crops to grow in non-traditional regions through new breeding technologies, through short-season and short-stature varieties, such as the Mustard in India. Lise Breuil, Country Director, Agence Française de Développement based in India, stressed a crucial aspect of the conversation: the suitable financial model. She emphasised the role of public development banks (PDB) in making systems more resilient in the water and agricultural sector, including national and regional, in creating traction towards adaptation and resilience through financing and technical assistance. She added the necessity of international partnerships with regional banks across Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Claire built on Lise’s point, touching on the role of PDB in the agricultural space; she shared ADB's experience in this space as an enabler through their specific technological assistance and creating feedback loops through agencies and governments, making it more attractive for PDB to step in for investment. She concluded by emphasising the need for knowledge partnership in this space.
In the panel's concluding remarks, touching upon the role and the need for regional government, business, and civil society collaboration to make supply chain and economic security more resilient, Robert Kaan highlighted the uniqueness of the region in terms of scale and scope, which necessitates collaboration and cooperation for initiatives and projects. He gave an example of a Farmer Producers Organisation (FPO) setup based in India. Silvia pitched in by emphasising the government’s perspective and talked about capacity building and knowledge sharing as a mechanism. Lise called for greater focus on non-traditional security issues, such as water and food security, in global forums, commending the Raisina Dialogue for embracing a broad, inclusive agenda. Together, their reflections called for a comprehensive, cooperative approach to addressing complex regional challenges.
This event report has been written by Abhishek Sharma.
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