On 21 July 2023, Mr. Hideya Yamada Director General of the Statistics Department, and Mr. Masahiro Hosaka, Deputy Director of the Statistics Planning Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan visited the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) to attend the bilateral meeting with Mr. Chantanon Wannakejohn, Secretary-General of the OAE, Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperative (MOAC) of Thailand, to discuss the effective and smooth implementation of AFSIS in the long term.
The representatives of OAE are Mr. Vinit Atisook, Deputy Secretary General of OAE, Ms. Anyada Penpon, Senior Statistician, Mr. Anon Boonyawattana, Statistician Practitioner Level, Ms. Natnaphat Subtaweepollert, Plan and Policy Analyst, and also AFSIS Secretariat attended the meeting.
The objectives of this significant meeting are to exchange candid opinions on the details of the AFSIS new framework and to form a common understanding of the general direction to be taken, and issues to be addressed.
Furthermore, the Meeting discussed the detail of Japan’s joint research project on developing an estimated method of rice production by using satellite imaging data to promote the interaction of agricultural statisticians among AFSIS member countries.
The meeting successfully ended with great collaboration from both sides to confirm their utmost effort in order to support the continuity and progression of the AFSIS outcomes in the future.
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On 23 April 2026, the AFSIS Secretariat participated in the Ad-Hoc Senior Officials Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (SOM-AMAF), held via a virtual platform, to discuss the implications of recent developments in the Middle East on regional food security and to identify coordinated measures to enhance ASEAN’s food resilience, in preparation for the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) Meeting.
The agricultural sector plays a vital role in supporting food security and livelihoods across ASEAN, where diverse production capacities shape the availability of major agricultural commodities such as rice, maize, sugarcane, soybean, and cassava. This report examines the SSR patterns across ASEAN to emphasize regional strengths, structural imbalances, and the implications for food security and agricultural policy in the region.
The self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) is a key indicator of food security. It shows how well Southeast Asian countries can meet rice demand through domestic production, with the region overall remaining increasingly self-sufficient despite ongoing challenges.
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On 19 March 2026, the AFSIS Secretariat participated in the Asia and the Pacific Food Systems Forum 2026 under the theme “Feeding the Future, Sustaining the Planet” in Manila, the Philippines, organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) . The forum aimed to promote food security policies, review ADB’s related initiatives, and support long-term food systems transformation.
