Policies For High Quality Safe And Sustainable Food Supply In The Greater Mekong Subregion

This book presents research into the production of safe, high-quality, and environmentally friendly agriculture products in the Greater Mekong Subregion. It also explores the actions and policy options that could be pursued. Three themes are examined: Improving Food Safety and Quality; Inclusive and Sustainable, Safe and Environment-Friendly Agriculture Products; and Value Chains for Safe and Environment-Friendly Agriculture Products. This aligns with the ASEAN Economic Community blueprint, which calls for the creation of a single market and production base for food, agriculture, forestry; and integration of the region into the global economy.

As the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has made considerable progress in food security, addressing health, safety, and environmental concerns is also essential. The strategy and action plan will strengthen the commitment to food security, increase market access for small producers, and ensure inclusive food safety for the GMS. It aims at achieving the GMS vision of being a leading global supplier of safe and environment-friendly agriculture products through four pillars: policies, infrastructure, knowledge, and marketing.

This report explores potential links between the agriculture and tourism sectors that could strengthen infrastructure development and inclusive growth in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Over the last 3 decades, the Lao People's Democratic Republic has seen remarkable economic growth, with per capita income quadrupling between 1989 and 2019. However, this growth has been accompanied by widening inequality as the economy generated limited job opportunities beyond agriculture. In the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, this report emphasizes the need to develop synergies between agriculture and tourism. It recommends investing in infrastructure, human capital, and digital connectivity among other development areas in the country's agriculture and tourism sectors.

Trade facilitation of agri-food products can potentially reduce trade barriers, lower transaction costs, foster efficiency along the supply chains, and reduce poverty in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A comprehensive analysis of a range of policy options that influence trade behaviors of selected agri-food products in the GMS will help policy makers in their decision making. This agriculture trade facilitation plan lays out systematic ways to increase movement and flow of agri-food products and their impacts on the GMS sector. It proposes that the GMS adopt a cluster approach to trade facilitation and develop itself into regional hubs of agri-food trade.

The Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program Strategic Framework 2030 (GMS-2030) aims to strengthen regional cooperation and integration in critical areas. GMS-2030 builds upon recognized strengths with a project-led approach that will benefit the community, support connectivity, and improve competitiveness. It also emphasizes the challenges of the coronavirus disease and aims to ensure that government strategies are conducive to a robust recovery in the medium term and beyond. Based on decades of success and program experience, GMS-2030 provides continuity, but will be updated, as necessary, to reflect evolving global or regional forces that may impinge on GMS development prospects.

The impacts of climate change on agriculture and food production in Southeast Asia will be largely mediated through water, but climate is only one driver of change. Water resources in the region will be shaped by a complex mixture of social, economic and environmental factors. This report reviews the current status and trends in water management in the Greater Mekong Subregion; assesses likely impacts of climate change on water resources to 2050; examines water management strategies in the context of climate and other changes; and identifies priority actions for governments and communities to improve resilience of the water sector and safeguard food production.

The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. The Mekong River fans out over an area of about 40,000 sq kilometers and over the course of many millennia has produced a region of fertile alluvial soils and constant flows of energy. Today about a fourth of the Delta is under rice cultivation, making this area one of the premier rice granaries in the world. The Delta has always proven a difficult environment to manipulate, however, and because of population pressures, increasing acidification of soils, and changes in the Mekong’s flow, environmental problems have intensified. The changing way in which the region has been linked to larger flows of commodities and capital over time has also had an impact on the region: For example, its re-emergence in recent decades as a major rice-exporting area has linked it inextricably to global markets and their vicissitudes. And most recently, the potential for sea level increases because of global warming has added a new threat. Because most of the region is on average only a few meters above sea level and because any increase of sea level will change the complex relationship between tides and down-river water flow, the Mekong Delta is one of the areas in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How governmental policy and resident populations have in the past and will in coming decades adapt to climate change as well as several other emerging or ongoing environmental and economic problems is the focus of this collection.

This report aims to demonstrate the compelling need to increase investments in natural capital in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and identifies actions now being taken regionally and nationally to manage natural capital. It also proposes a guiding framework for promoting investments and actions by GMS countries to secure natural capital and thus ensure sustainable and inclusive growth in the subregion.