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1. Harmless Harvest: How sustainable agriculture can help ASEAN countries adapt to a changing climate

Author:
Maria Dolores Bernabe
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
A better way of growing food is the best bet against climate change for Southeast Asia's small-scale food producers. Sustainable agriculture - agriculture that can meet the needs of present and future generations, ensures the efficient production of safe, high-quality agricultural products in a way that protects the natural environment, and improves on the economic conditions of farmers and local communities - offers the best chances for countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to deal with climate change. By scaling-up sustainable agricultural practices across the region, ASEAN can help feed its peoples and support the livelihoods of small-scale food producers, and help curb greenhouse gas emissions to push back impending catastrophe.
Topic:
Agriculture, Environment, Regional Cooperation, and Food
Political Geography:
Asia and Southeast Asia

2. East-West Center Working Papers, Environmental Change, Vulnerability, and Governance Series

Author:
Alex S. Forster
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
North Korea is an extremely isolated and impoverished nation. While its political elites are able to enjoy some degree of luxury in spite of UN sanctions, the lower classes suffer from shortages of food, electricity, healthcare, and other basic needs. Many of the lower class and fringe populations reside in rural areas with limited infrastructure, and rely on black markets to survive. Their situation could be dramatically improved if electricity could be provided to their communities to power heating, health clinics, manufacturing facilities, fertilizer plants, and water pumps for agricultural irrigation.
Topic:
Health, Food, and Sanctions
Political Geography:
Asia and United Nations

3. CHINA’S GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL STRATEGY: AN OPEN SYSTEM TO SAFEGUARD THE COUNTRY’S FOOD SECURITY

Author:
Cheng Guoqiang and Zhang Hongzhou
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
National food security will continue to be the top strategic issue confronting Chinese policymakers. In the next two decades of rapid income growth, China‟s total demand for agricultural products will increase in the face of diminishing water and land resources, and the task of feeding the 1.3 billion Chinese people will be even more challenging. The authors suggest that a global agricultural strategy is the strategic choice for China because it enables China to safeguard national food security and at the same time, tackle its rising domestic demand for agricultural resources in the face of environmental pressures.
Topic:
Agriculture, Environment, Water, Food, and Food Security
Political Geography:
China and Asia

4. Understanding Mandis: Market Towns and the Dynamics of India's Rural and Urban Transformations

Author:
Devesh Kapur and Mekhala Krishnamurthy
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Abstract:
Mandis or physical, primary agricultural markets are old and ubiquitous institutions of economic life in many parts of India. Wherever they form, they are usually dense sites of economic, social and political activity, connecting and shaping the relations between town and countryside, and between local markets for commodities and larger, national and global circuits of capital and commerce. According to available estimates, there are over 7500 regulated agricultural markets in India today, operating under different state level acts covering a huge variety of notified agricultural produce.
Topic:
Agriculture, Emerging Markets, and Food
Political Geography:
India and Asia

5. Cereal Secrets: The world's largest grain traders and global agriculture

Author:
Jennifer Clapp, Sophia Murphy, and David Burch
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This report is composed of two parts. The first introduces the four big commodity traders – Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus – which are the focus of this study. Collectively, these trading companies are often referred to as 'the ABCD companies' because of the coincidence of their initials. Part 2 then looks at these traders in relation to a number of the global issues pressing on agriculture: the 'financialization' of both commodity trade and agricultural production; the emergence of global competitors to the ABCDs, in particular from Asia; and some of the implications of large-scale industrial biofuels, a sector in which the ABCDs are closely involved. It includes a discussion of how smallholders in developing countries are affected by some of these changes, and highlights some development policy implications, given the importance of the ABCDs in shaping the world of food and agriculture.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Poverty, and Food
Political Geography:
Asia

6. Improving Food Security for Vulnerable Communities in Nepal

Author:
Kate Kilpatrick
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Nepal is one of the world's poorest nations, with 31 per cent of its 28 million-population living below the poverty line. Chronic food insecurity and hunger are part of daily life for millions of Nepalis. For families living in Nepal's remote mountain regions in particular, getting access to sufficient food is a daily struggle. Climate change is making the situation worse.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, and Food
Political Geography:
South Asia, Asia, and Nepal

7. Feeding Asia in the 21st Century: Building Urban – Rural Alliances

Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
The International Conference on Asian Food Security (ICAFS) took place on 10–12 August 2011 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore. ICAFS 2011, themed 'Feeding Asia in the 21st Century: Building Urban- Rural Alliances', was convened in the context of complex and multifaceted challenges throughout food systems in Asia. The conference sought to address timely questions relating to these challenges, and foster discussions among a range of stakeholders from Asia's food sectors.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Poverty, and Food
Political Geography:
Asia

8. Year in Review 2011

Author:
J. Jackson Ewing (ed) and Alistair D.B. Cook (ed)
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
The year 2011 has seen the further prioritisation of nontraditional security (NTS) issues throughout research and policymaking circles in the Asia-Pacific region. Regional trends and events have highlighted the need for strategies that can help people, communities, states and organisations address multifarious security challenges, thus propelling the NTS platform to a higher stratum of political and institutional discourse.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Climate Change, Development, Economics, Health, Poverty, Natural Disasters, and Food
Political Geography:
Asia and Australia/Pacific

9. West African Experience with the World Rice Crisis, 2007–2008

Author:
Vijaya Ramachandran, Peter Timmer, Steven Block, and Jenny C. Aker
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Rice production in Africa has tended to be low-yielding, geographically dispersed, and uncompetitive against low-cost Asian imports, even when protected by high freight costs and substantial trade barriers. Skyrocketing prices in world markets in 2007—08 were a shock to African consumers, producers, and governments alike. When international rice prices were relatively low, rice imports did not pose economic or political problems for West African governments. Extremely expensive imports reverse that equation. This paper addresses the response to that reversal first by presenting a historical review of trends in the West African rice sector and, second, by assessing the effect of world rice prices on domestic prices, primarily at the consumer level.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid and Food
Political Geography:
Africa and Asia

10. Women and Food Security: A Comparison of South Asia and Southeast Asia

Author:
Arpita Mathur
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
Abstract:
Women are a social group vulnerable to food insecurity despite being primary actors in the food chain. The problem of food insecurity among women is especially rampant in parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Vulnerability to food insecurity has a definite effect on the health of women and children, as well as social and economic impacts in terms of fewer opportunities for education and greater instances of early marriages. A comparison of indicators used to assess vulnerabilities of women in the two regions shows that the overall situation in South Asia is worse than that in Southeast Asia. The primary securitising actors at the national, regional and international levels have to play an individual and collective role in rectifying the situation. It is equally mandatory for regional groupings such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to provide a sound systemic environment for individual countries to work towards achieving these objectives.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, and Food
Political Geography:
Asia