Food security is no longer just about producing enough food.
It also depends on ensuring farming remains economically viable, improving access to nutritious diets and using technologies such as AI to make food systems more efficient and adaptable.
‘Resilience has to start at origin’
Recent years have made clear how fast logistics networks can seize up and how far and lingering the effects can stretch.
“The pandemic was an important wake-up call because it showed how quickly logistics networks can become constrained,” said N. Muthukumar, Group Chief Operating Officer, Olam Agri.
Since then, supply chains have been hit by a seemingly never-ending wave of geopolitical tensions and extreme weather events, forcing businesses to accept uncertainty as part of the landscape.
Muthukumar describes resilience as no longer a safeguard against disruption, but a “strategic capability”.
Against this backdrop, resilience needs to start at the very top, with the smallholder farmers whose land, labour and decisions shape everything downstream.
“To my mind the biggest vulnerability facing food systems is producers making the decision that it is no longer economic to produce and seeking a higher and better use for their land,” said Ian Proudfoot, Global Head of Agribusiness, KPMG.
Proudfoot said that rising production costs, pressure on farm incomes and growing exposure to droughts, floods and other extreme weather events are testing the economic viability of agriculture across the region.
In a similar vein, Muthukumar identified climate volatility as one of the greatest vulnerabilities facing APAC agri-food supply chains.
“Extreme weather is affecting crop production, trade flows and sourcing decisions, so resilience has to start at origin, where food is produced.”
He also added that this area is often the most difficult part of the supply chain to redesign.
“Unlike logistics or procurement processes, agricultural production systems cannot be transformed quickly, particularly when they depend on large numbers of smallholder farmers facing climate and market volatility.”
Consequently, farmer-focused interventions are emerging as a key part of strengthening future supply chains.
For Olam Agri, building resilience at farm level means investing in programmes aimed at improving productivity and climate adaptation.
In Thailand, the company works with thousands of rice farmers through climate-smart rice programmes supported by partners including GIZ, the Thai Rice Department and projects backed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The initiatives focus on improved agronomy, climate-smart farming practices, access to inputs and stronger market linkages.
“The aim is to help farmers improve productivity, use resources more efficiently and strengthen livelihoods, while building more secure supply over the long term,” said Muthukumar.
Proudfoot highlighted that technology could also play an important role in improving resilience.
“There is significant untapped potential in the implementation of a wide range of technology solutions to improve both yield and nutritional quality of the food produced, however much existing and highly relevant technology has not been adopted at scale.”
However, one of the biggest challenges lies in integrating beneficial technology into production systems in a way that reduces risk for producers.
Farmers are also unlikely to adopt new tools simply because they are available, said Proudfoot, noting that growers have traditionally prioritised innovations that offer a clear and relatively rapid return on investment.
As a result, resilience technologies must not only improve productivity or sustainability but also make economic sense at farm level.
“Farmers and growers have always invested strategically in innovations within their production systems that are expected to deliver rapid payback on the investment, and they will continue to do so,” said Proudfoot.
“To date, too much of the roll out has been left to the solution developers that often have found a problem to match the technology they have developed, meaning they are often trying to force a solution into a system which it is not designed to fit into.”
He added that KPMG’s work in the area suggests that scaling up requires a systems-level approach and close collaboration to embed solutions into existing production systems.
The growing issue of nutrition security
Food security is a known concern in many developing nations, particularly those with economic challenges such as Myanmar and Cambodia, but the even more widespread issue of nutrition security is common across most countries in Asia, often without the average consumer being aware of it.
“Asia has made significant progress in reducing hunger and improving access to food over the past few decades. More people today have access to safe food supplies — but the challenge has evolved, where we are increasingly facing what many experts call the ‘triple burden of malnutrition’,” said Nestlé Malaysia Business Executive Officer for Nutrition, Yeoh She Shiang.
“This is where undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight or obesity co-exist within the same communities, and sometimes even within the same households.”
Major misconceptions still exist around how a full stomach automatically translates into having access to enough, high-quality nutrition.
“Having enough calories does not necessarily mean having the right balance of essential nutrients required for healthy growth, development, productivity, and healthy ageing,” she added.
“In countries like Malaysia, gaps still remain in areas such as micronutrient intake, dietary diversity, nutrition literacy, and access to affordable nutritious foods for vulnerable populations.”
This is a situation where ignorance is not bliss, and there are very real dangers if society and governments simply maintain the status quo.
“If we maintain the status quo, we risk widening the gap between food security and nutrition security,” she said.
“On one hand, we may continue producing enough food, but on the other hand, many populations could continue to experience micronutrient deficiencies, poor dietary quality, and rising rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases.”
This is no small matter, and not just a public health issue either: without swift action, many long-term negative social and economic consequences could arise.
“Poor nutrition affects educational outcomes, workforce productivity, healthcare expenditures, and overall economic resilience,” said Yeoh.
“This is why action today matters. The longer we wait to address affordability, nutrition literacy, and access to nutrient-rich foods, the greater the social and economic challenges become in the future.”
From an industry perspective, Nestlé is working to improve existing and new products, using its widespread consumer reach to support nutrition security.
“At Nestlé, we believe that improving nutrition starts with continuously enhancing the nutritional profile of our products while ensuring they remain affordable, accessible, and relevant to local consumers,” she said.
“This includes efforts in product renovation and reformulation, responsible fortification, portion guidance, and nutrition education initiatives.”
Examples include various sugar-reduction initiatives, wholegrain and nutrient improvements, and a variety of science-based nutrition innovations.
“Moving forward, the focus needs to be on improving diet quality, making nutritious options more affordable and accessible, strengthening nutrition education, and encouraging collaboration between government, healthcare professionals, academia, and industry,” Yeoh stressed.
“At the Summit, I look forward to discussing how science, innovation, and partnerships can work together to make nutritious diets more affordable and accessible for more people.
“The future of nutrition innovation is not only about developing new products. It is also about understanding how those innovations can be scaled, how they can reach underserved populations, and how they can contribute to better health outcomes throughout life.”
AI for supply chain: From better yield productivity to nutritional profile
Artificial intelligence (AI) is permeating various aspects of the food supply chain system, beyond predicting demand and supply to raising yield productivity and improving nutritional profiles.
This is according to Xiaofeng Ye, global VP for Planetary Health Biosolutions in Asia Pacific, Novonesis, Singapore.
“AI can play a very direct role in planning the supply, in order to better meet the demand. But I would like to throw in a very different angle, which is that AI can accelerate innovation in biotechnology, amplify the magnitude of new solutions so that producers can produce more with less,” he said.
Using data which can be generated daily from the agricultural field, there is the opportunity to develop more efficient ingredients to support greater agricultural output.
He explained that AI speeds up innovation by allowing companies to conduct early-stage validation of innovation ideas, helping to shorten the innovation cycle by ruling out ideas that might not work.
“AI can play a very important role in extracting key insights and value from data gathered from the agricultural field. These data can then be fed into innovating new biotechnologies and new ingredients that contribute to greater agricultural productivity,” he said. “These new ingredients could, for example, replace fertilisers or different kinds of chemicals, with the aim of improving yield at the same time.”
Aside from nutrition for the soil, AI can also be used to design better food or feed ingredients for humans and animals, he said.
At the moment, there are already examples where nutraceutical companies use AI to identify functional bioactives in botanical extracts to create new products or refine existing product formulations.
“There may be existing databases containing the nutritional value of different food and feed ingredients. With AI, we can make a huge leap in continuing to build the database and utilize the data from a nutritional point of view, so that we can better design ingredients to cater to the needs of both human nutrition and animal nutrition.”
The most important starting point when using AI, however, is to ensure that the right set of information and data are captured and accumulated.
“If you look at the organisational capabilities on AI, I would say that there are still some gaps. In order for AI to be very effective, the right data must be in place, either by building the database or getting access to the right database. To me, this is a crucial starting point,” he said.
Using the agricultural sector as an example, he said current issues include data not being captured properly or collected data not being used efficiently.
Muthukumar, Proudfoot, Yeoh and Ye are set to take the stage at the APAC Agri-Food Innovation Summit in Singapore from October 27 to 29.
The speakers will join more industry leaders in examining how stronger supply chains, improved nutrition outcomes and technology-driven innovation can help build a more resilient and competitive agri-food system for the region.