ERIA President Highlights ASEAN–ERIA Cooperation at 46th Meeting of ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry

Jakarta, 24 October 2024: Tetsuya Watanabe, President of ERIA, participated virtually in the 46th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) on 24 October 2024. During his presentation on ASEAN-ERIA cooperation in the food and agriculture sector, he outlined ERIA's initiatives for developing a sustainable agri-food system in the ASEAN region.

President Watanabe highlighted ERIA's key contributions, including support for the development of important ASEAN strategic documents like the 'Action Plan for Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN' and the 'ASEAN Guidelines on the Reduction of Crop Burning.' He also emphasised ERIA's studies and capacity-building activities in ASEAN priority areas such as crop burning reduction, agricultural digitalisation, climate change adaptation, and food security.

Amongst the highlighted initiatives, President Watanabe focused on two study projects: accelerating digitalisation in the agri-food system and reducing crop burning. He noted the findings from ERIA's previous study on sustainable agriculture, which revealed limited dissemination of digital agriculture and disparities amongst ASEAN countries. He stressed the need to follow up on the 'ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting the Utilization of Digital Technologies for the Food and Agriculture Sector' adopted at the 2021 AMAF Meeting. In line with this, he introduced an ongoing study aimed at accelerating the adoption of digital agriculture across the region and shared outcomes from a recently co-organised symposium that brought together government officials, businesses, and other stakeholders from within and beyond ASEAN. He underscored ERIA's readiness to support the development of a regional action programme, as recognised during the symposium.

Continuing his presentation, President Watanabe discussed preliminary recommendations from another ERIA study on reducing crop burning, which supports the implementation of the ASEAN Guidelines on the Reduction of Crop Burning. He explained key findings, such as the effectiveness of technology and machinery in reducing crop burning and the importance of financial schemes to facilitate the transition to alternative practices. He proposed further study on financial mechanisms to promote crop burning reduction as the next step.

In conclusion, President Watanabe introduced the ERIA-Asia Zero Emission Center, launched in August 2024, as a common policy platform for multistakeholder engagement. The Center will develop strategic research programmes and foster collaboration with other ASEAN organisations.

In response to President Watanabe's presentation, the Ministers acknowledged ERIA's studies on digitalisation, decarbonisation, and local food reserves, as well as its capacity-building efforts. The Ministers also expressed support for ERIA's projects.

Prior to the ministerial meetings, Masanori Kozono, ERIA's Senior Policy Fellow, reported on ERIA's research activities related to digital agriculture and crop burning reduction during the Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting (PrepSOM) of the 46th AMAF on 22 October 2024. The report received several positive and supportive interventions from ASEAN Member States' representatives.

ERIA will continue to address the challenges of developing a sustainable agri-food system in the region through its research and related activities.