ASEAN officer reminds Asian countries to ensure food security as climate change worsens

The General Manager of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) is urging Asian countries to ensure food security in the light of worsening effects of climate change.

In an interview, Wiroj Saengbangka who is a Thailander and the general manager of APTERR secretariat, said that Asia is one of the continents that have been greatly affected by climate change.

Saengbangka was here Thursday in order to distribute 1.2 metric tons of rice coming from the Malaysia's Ministry of Agriculture.The recipients of the rice program were poor residents who were affected by the recent typhoon 'Haiyan.'

The initiative was undertaken by the National Food Authority and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

It was learned that Japan, Thailand and China had also distributed metric tons of rice to other provinces in the Visayas region affected by the super typhoon. China, according to Saengbanka, provided 800 metric tons of rice to typhoon victims.

"We in the APTERR wanted to ensure food security as part of the preparations for the worsening climate change," said Saengbangka.

The APTERR stocks under Tier 3 is a mechanism for the release of stockpiled emergency rice reserves collectively owned by APTERR member-countries in response to an acute and urgent emergency demand of a recipient country.

The 13 member-countries of APTERR Council are Thailand, Laos, Brunei, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines. APTERR aims to address the food shortages caused by natural disasters or man-made calamities through the provision of food assistance and nutrition improvement programs to people in need.

In 1979, the ASEAN Emergency Rice Reserve (AERR) was established as part of the implementation of the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Agreement (AFSR) signed by the ASEAN Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The AERR was renamed APTERR in 2009.