Initial findings officially released today highlight a key challenge raised by ASEAN food and agriculture policymakers – chiefly that more than half (51%) believe climate change is the biggest challenge regional food systems face today.

This finding is part of new research that will be released in November titled 2021 Policymaker Survey: Impact of Climate Change on ASEAN Agriculture. This ongoing research initiative is being conducted by market research company PSB Insights and made possible through cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and CropLife Asia. The initiative is designed to better understand the impact climate change is having on agriculture and its role in driving food security in the Southeast Asia region.

Additional first findings from the upcoming report include:

• Improving soil quality (95%), pest management (91%) and ensuring sufficient crop yields (91%) are the top challenges faced by ASEAN nations according to policymakers.
• Climate change is making these challenges worse according to policymakers and there is deep concern regarding the impact of these issues in ASEAN over the next 10 years.
• Farmers are most at risk of being negatively impacted by climate change according to ASEAN policymakers, with 60% strongly agreeing that farmers will be harmed or negatively impacted by the effects of climate change on food production and security.

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is scheduled to commence in Glasgow, Scotland later this week (31 October – 12 November).

Earlier this year, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report warning against the effects of climate change and calling for rapid actions in global cooperation. The report was referred to by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as “code red for humanity” and has spurred additional discourse on how society can support more aggressive climate change action.