For Asia and the Pacific, the time to shine in global anti-hunger effort is now

These are among the key challenges that national policy makers responsible for their countries’ food security are wrestling with this week as they gather in Putrajaya, Malaysia, for FAO’s Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific.

I am confident that together, pooling their knowledge and sharing a commoncommitmentto joint action, they will help the region advance down the pathway to Zero Hunger.

We already have some clear ideas where more action is needed. Many of the nutritional challenges facing Asia and the Pacific persist mainly because a lack of purchasing power, limits tophysical access to food, and the spotty coverage of social protection programs. Some Asian countries have made significant efforts in developing and strengthening such systems, but more is required. The expansion of social protection systems to all, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable, is fundamental.

Also key, as mentioned, is paying close attention to the nutritional quality of the food we’re producing. Producing more food, while important, is not the sole answer. We must feed people well.

Family farmers need to be much more integrated into food systems. So far, they haven’t fully benefited from rapid economic growth in the region and the resulting surge in demand for higher-value food products. If we empower them as fully connected players in food value chains, they’ll be able to boost their output, earn more, eat better, and act as engines for rural economic growth.

Additionally, we must continue to innovate, trying out new tactics such as the Blue Growth approach to fisheries and aquaculture, being widely embraced across the Asia-Pacific. Future successes in food production will requirecreativity -- and more research and development. The region has the academic talent to find those solutions, provided governments invest in public goods and create an enabling environment to encourage the private sector to also chip in.

Past successes and progress in Asia and the Pacific bode well for the future. With the Green Revolution this region achieved tremendous increases in food and agricultural production and emancipated hundreds of millions of people from poverty and hunger. Asia and the Pacific has shown that with human ingenuity and hard work, nothing is impossible. Working together, the region can and will be an international leader in the SDG-era push to finally eradicate hunger and malnutrition, once and for all.

The author, José Graziano da Silva, is Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).