World Food Policy WFP Volume 4, No. 2, Spring 2018 | Page 5

World Food Policy • Vol. 4, No. 2 / Spring 2018
Editors’ Introduction
Ammar Siamwalla 1 , Hermann Waibel 2 ,
Nipon Poapongsakorn 3 and Keokam Kraisoraphong 4
F
ood Insecurity remains a challenge in many areas of the world. Although im-
pressive progress was achieved in some countries, in many others, especially
in Africa and in South Asia vulnerability to food insecurity remains high.
The goal of a complete food security where “all people at all times have sufficient,
nutritious and safe food which they need for a healthy life” is remains an ambition
under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 2, to be achieved by 2030. Contin-
uous and successful structural transformation of agriculture and the rural areas
in developing countries is vital to achieve this goal. In Asia, a lot will depend on
how the two big players, China and India, with over 40 % of the world population
continue to progress.
Against this background the World Food Policy Journal in 2017 has orga-
nized a “China-India Food Policy Conference that has brought together a num-
ber of outstanding scholars in a two-day meeting in Bangkok. Out of the pre-
sentations and discussions ten highly informative and interesting policy papers
have emerged which are presented in this double volume of the WFP. In brief
the presentations, discussions and the resulting papers have spawned at least ten
important key messages:
1. Global food systems have changed rapidly and this made improved food
security in many developing regions but there remain problem regions like
many parts of Africa and South Asia.
2. While progress can be expected to continue taking place the risks from
climate change and trade policy change must be taken seriously.
3. China and India are major players in the global food system and import-
ant, albeit different lessons can be learned from their development path.
4. Common to both countries is the change in consumer preferences and
consumption patterns during the course of income growth, urbanization
and structural change in agriculture.
5. In China changes in food consumption patterns have occurred more
1
2
3
4
Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI)
University of Hannover, Germany
Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI)
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
1
doi: 10.18278/wfp.4.2.1