Promoting Value-Added, Traditional Food Production in Asia

                 Agricultural production is a prerequisite to rural poverty alleviation. However, in itself, agricultural growth is not sufficient to eradicate poverty, nor can it create adequate opportunities for enhanced rural employment, income generation, and economic access to food.

                                        Agro-processing maintains a high potential for boosting economies based on agriculture to help ensure sustainable growth and increasing rural incomes in the region. And while the new global economy ushers in a rapid expansion of the worldwide distribution of agricultural products, our concern now is not only to produce food in sufficient quantity, but also to enhance the competitiveness of the Asian agricultural industry in the world market by developing value-added foods based on higher quality standards and improved processing techniques.

                                         The international seminar on Developing Agricultural Technology for Value-added Food Production in Asia held in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan on 12-16 July 2004 sponsored by FFTC and the National Agricultural Research Center for Hokkaido Region (NARCH) was very timely and fitting, as technology for sustainable and environment-friendly value-added food production are continuously developed, particularly to upgrade ethnic and traditional agro-products and small-scale rural processing in the region. Participants from different Asian countries shared experiences and deliberated on such issues as, problems concerning high value-added food production; effective use of agricultural products for sustainable agriculture; and promoting and developing traditional food industry.

Need for Scientific and Technological Advancement

                                          In the last half of the 20th century, rapid industrialization and urbanization have been consuming too much fossil energy and resulting in rapid migration of humans and the fast movement of resources and information. Agriculture is not exempted from this fast change and it is now shifting from small-scale to commercial and even to global production. Thus, new agricultural technologies have been developed in order to supply stable and sufficient food to the expanding population. Meanwhile, we must also consider sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment, and the preservation of the diverse food culture and maximum utilization of food and biomass. East Asia in the Pacific Rim is the origin of diverse agricultural technology and food culture, and is envisioned to be at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement in agriculture.

Major Issues and Recommendations

Following are the major conclusions and recommendations drawn from the seminar:

• 1. To meet the food requirements of the increasing Asian population in the next decades, agricultural food production must be increased, not just in terms of quantity but also in quality. The development and promotion of high-quality and value-added agro-products are vital in response to the changing market and consumer preferences amid recent trends in economic development and globalization, as well as the expanding population.
• 2. Asian countries must realize the limitation of agricultural productivity in terms of human and natural resources. Hence, increased agricultural food production must be based on technological improvement to promote: a) sustainable, efficient and economic use of land and other resources; b) crop variety improvement; c) value-added approaches in food processing to develop various functionalities in response to changing market and consumer preferences; and d) development of quality standard for processed food for global competitiveness.
• 3. To ensure sustainable economic and agricultural development in Asia, food production must be viewed in terms of rural poverty alleviation. Agro-processing must be able to create adequate opportunities for enhanced rural employment, income generation, and economic access to food. Strategic alliance or integration between small-scale food producers and the manufacturing industry must be enhanced, possibly through farmers' organizations.
• 4. With the diverse traditional food culture in each country in Asia, there is a great potential for the development of rich and high-quality food resources within the region. We must recognize and re-evaluate the value and importance of the Asian food culture in response to changing consumer preference, the demand for more food variety, and the promotion of physiologically functional foods. However, we must study traditional food processes in detail and learn from these conventional technologies, as well as develop appropriate new technologies to achieve high-quality standard for traditional food.
• 5. We must learn from the damaging effects of rapid and excessive industrialization and we must realize the importance of biological industries that pose minimal damage to the environment. Now, East Asia in the Pacific Rim has 60% of the total world population and its agriculture based on the richness of its bio-resources has attracted world attention.
• 6. FFTC must continue to promote cooperation among Asian countries in technology development for high-quality and value-added food production, and must sustain its efforts through the conduct of follow activities related to the topic in the near future.

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