Promoting Rural Development and Food Security
Asia and the Pacific have made remarkable progress in reducing food insecurity over the past quarter of a century, despite differences across subregions. But the burden of feeding the increasing population still falls heavily on developing member countries, and food production is being reduced by the decreasing rural population, unsustainable use of land and natural resources, and global climate change. To solve these food security issues, the entire food supply system and rural development must be reformed. The shrinking agricultural workforce requires more state-of-the art agricultural technology. Infrastructure gaps must be filled by developing better post-harvest facilities, rural roads, market infrastructure, and agri-logistics centers to integrate more producers and agribusinesses into national, regional, and global food systems. Capacity-building and training programs will focus on agricultural market connectivity and agricultural value chain linkages, agricultural productivity, food security, and food safety.
The landscape of Misato City in Japan has changed drastically in the last 35 years. In the 1980s, Shin-Misato Station was the Mushashino marshalling yard for freight services. Most of the land near the station was used for agriculture, but once residential houses increased and more people came to settle in the area the government built a passenger train station.