ASEAN stability tied to food safety
ASEAN stability tied to food safety
HANOI (Agencies): Southeast Asian stability depends heavily on food security and the region needs to ensure supplies of staples such as rice, a senior Vietnamese official said on Tuesday.
Agriculture Minister Le Huy Ngo told Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) food security conference that the region's economic crisis and adverse weather this year had hit agricultural output badly.
"Many people face unemployment and the number of poor suffering food shortages has increased sharply, threatening political, economic and social stability," he said.
The three-day conference involving ASEAN delegates and international experts is expected to discuss a range of issues relating to regional agricultural production.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The opening speeches did not refer to Indonesia, which experienced major political and social unrest this year partly because of food shortages and sky-rocketing rice prices.
Meanwhile, Thailand's officials warned the people on Tuesday that crops could fail and some urban water supplies could dry up as the country braces for what is expected to be its worst ever drought next year.
The officials said they had mapped out a national plan to tackle the drought which is expected to take hold during next year's dry season from March to June.
The Thai cabinet officially acknowledged the plan, which predicts the drought will severely damage the second rice crop next year and affect city water supplies, officials said.
Thailand is the world's biggest exporter of rice.
The National Water Resources Committee told ministers water level in the country's two major dams -- Bhumibol and Sirikit -- left only 4.5 billion cubic meters (157.5 cubic feet) for use in the next dry season.
The water level had dropped drastically from 8.2 billion cubic meters in 1997 and could fall to only four billion cubic meters by the end of this year.