On 20 October 2023, the AFSIS Secretariat joined a webinar organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and APTERR Secretariat on the topic “Strengthening Food Security in Southeast Asia: Regional Cooperation, Market Development, and Policy Reforms”.
There were over 50 participants which were APTERR member countries and organizations. The representatives from the AFSIS Secretariat were Dr. Sumanya Ngandee, AFSIS Manager, Mr. Charapon Chantorn, Deputy AFSIS Manager, Mr. Yasuhiro Miyake, Japanese Expert, Ms. Worada Wongsud, Secretary to the Japanese Expert, Ms. Prodpran Lomthong and Ms. Chayanit Meelong, Project Coordinator attended the meeting.

The objective of the webinar was to strengthen food security in Southeast Asia by presenting an overview of the progress made by ASEAN in implementing an integrated food security framework over the past decade, providing insights into the regional cooperation framework for the emergency rice reserve system within ASEAN and its role in addressing food system challenges, and exploring opportunities for scaling up regional cooperation and market development among ASEAN countries, and developing an enabling domestic policy environment to strengthen food security.
The discussion was divided into three themes. 1) Developing Emergency Rice Reserve System: Lessons learned from ASEAN Regional Cooperation Framework 2) Fostering Rice Futures Market in Southeast Asia, and 3) Strengthening Food Security Policy: Country Case Study in Malaysia.

On this occasion, the AFSIS Secretariat had the opportunity to present in the first theme panel discussion by Dr. Sumanya Ngandee, introducing AFSIS’s background, activities, and ambition to become a sustainable mechanism in the near future to continuously enhance food security in the region by systematically collecting, analyzing, and disseminating food security-related information within member countries in the region and other organizations.

At the end of the webinar, delegates from relevant organizations also exchanged various perspectives on the earlier themes. For example, the World Food Programme focused on leveraging rice fortification throughout ASEAN and the progress that ASEAN has made to strengthen food security over the last decade in different dimensions.
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The AFSIS Secretariat participated in the 10th International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS X), held from 8 to 10 July 2026 at the ICE Krakow Congress Centre in Krakow, Poland. Jointly organized by Statistics Poland, Eurostat, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the World Bank Group, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
On 24–25 June 2026, AFSIS Secretariat participated in the 46th Meeting of the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board (AFSRB) via a virtual conference. The Meeting was jointly organized by the AFSRB Secretariat and the Department of Agriculture (DOA), Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and was hosted in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
On 17–18 June 2026, the 24th AFSIS Focal Point Meeting was successfully convened via video conference, hosted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in collaboration with the ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) Secretariat.
The ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) Secretariat, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Japan, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC), and Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), conducted the 2nd Hands-on Training Courses for Agricultural Statisticians, the Final Workshop, and the 2nd Seminar for Executive Officials under the JAIF Project entitled “Improvement of Rice Paddy Area Statistics and Damage Assessment using Earth Observation Satellites for ASEAN” in Sriracha, Chonburi Province, and Bangkok, Thailand.