Investment, Innovation, Integration – Pathways to a Food Secure Asia by 2025

Abstract

Asia’s food demands are increasing and evolving, and will continue to do so in the future. With high numbers of hungry and undernourished, rapid population growth, increasing rural-urban migration and the ever present threat of climate change, securing food for the region will be fraught with challenges. Increasing the production and availability of food will no longer be the only areas to focus on in time to come. However, Asia’s rising wealth and economic growth present several opportunities to meet these challenges.

About the Authors

Tamara Nair is Research Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), where she works primarily on food security but is also involved in studies in migration and development issues in the region. With a background in Political Science and Geography from the National University of Singapore, she also has a Graduate Diploma in Education from the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Tamara has a Masters in Environmental Management, a Graduate Diploma in Arts Research and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Before joining the Centre for NTS Studies, she was involved in an international project looking at climate change and ‘cultures of resilience’ focusing on major waterways and communities (in Asia, Australia and the U.S.) in relation to their adaptation mechanisms in the face of climate change. She also served as a co-editor for a special edition volume of the International Journal of Water Governance. Tamara has taught in private and government schools in Singapore prior to her postgraduate studies.

Jonatan A. Lassa is Research Fellow with the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where he researches on climate change, food security and (environmental) risk governance issues. Jonatan holds a PhD from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bonn, Germany, and has studied Social Science and Interdisciplinarity at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn. He also has an MSc in environment and international development from the University of East Anglia, U.K. Prior to joining the Centre for NTS Studies, Jonatan was a senior research fellow with the Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC). He has also previously served as a PhD researcher with the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn (2007–2010) and as an Indonesia postdoctoral fellow at Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School (2011). In his professional career, he has also worked with the UN, international NGOs and the private sector.