The Special Senior Officials Meeting of the 40th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (SSOM-40^th AMAF) and the Special Senior Officials Meeting of the 18th Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry Plus Three (SSOM-18^th AMAF+3) were held on 5 - 7 August 2019 in Hue, Viet Nam.

 The representatives from the AFSIS Secretariat led by AFSIS Manager Mr. Vinit Atisook attended the said meetings to report the progress on AFSIS activities during 2018-2019 and the future work plan for 2019-2020.

The Meeting took note the progress report on AFSIS, focusing on the food security information development, human resources development and improving statistical data on food processing and distribution of 5 agricultural crops in ASEAN, as well as the future work plan on seeking possibility to link with some database or data related to food security, e.g. annual disaster situation in ASEAN, soil database from Asian Soil Partnership (ASP).

The Meeting acknowledged that the new project proposal on Supporting Agricultural Survey in Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in ASEAN Region, which aims to develop new appropriate survey methods to collect data using the estimation of specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicator and conduct a pilot survey in target countries has been circulated to AFSIS Focal Points for endorsement.

The Meeting noted that Japan’s commitment to continue supporting the activities of AFSIS.