Over the past weeks, our newspapers and social media feeds have been dominated with devastating images of Australia’s bushlands burning to the ground. Forests on fire, soils drying, glaciers melting - these wake-up calls that climate change is having irreversible effects on nature and all living species now come on a near-constant basis.

Agriculture can either be the main cause or our greatest asset in fighting the climate crisis. But, for this, it must be radically transformed. Humanity now depends on just three crops (wheat, rice and maize) for more than half of its food.

Earlier this month, Indonesia celebrated its National Heroes Day. The day, which falls on 10 November, is commemorated to honour all the Indonesian fighters killed and injured in the heroic Battle of Surabaya, East Java, on 10 November 1945.

In a recent report, it was found that 22 million people in Indonesia suffered from chronic hunger between the years 2016 and 2018. The report also acknowledged that there was strong growth in Indonesia’s agricultural sector and the country’s overall economy over the past several decades. Despite significant strides in the sector, however, many people across the country are still engaged in traditional agriculture as they are trapped in low-paid activities.

A brutal Indonesian forest fire season that left Southeast Asia choking in smog has renewed scrutiny of major palm oil and paper companies, with activists accusing them of breaking promises to halt logging.The monster blazes sent a pall of acrid smoke over the region for weeks, closing schools and airports and causing a spike in respiratory ailments.Mostly lit to clear land for agriculture, they were the worst seen in the country since 2015.Leading companies have in recent years pledged not t

While the Lao PDR government recently called for increased investment in agriculture to boost its export market, there are several issues that have to be tackled before foreign investors come knocking.Speaking to local media earlier this week, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr Bounkhuang Khambounheuang, said Cuba and Indonesia expressed interest in importing 100,000 and one million tons of rice respectively, with Vietnam seeking to purchase 500,000 head of livestock.The country,

Indonesia’s Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry and the National Land Agency (BPN) have an ambitious target of distributing 60 million land certificates for land ownership by 2025. 11 million land certificates are expected to be distributed in 2019, under its Agrarian Reform program.

Nothing gets your attention more than a whiff of the King of Fruits, whose pungent aroma can offend even an adult. Durian is a tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia and is mainly grown in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The hard, outer shell is covered in thorns, whose shape and size differs depending on the type. When ripe, the custard-like flesh inside can be sweet and creamy.

Urban farming could help provide a boost to the region’s food security and safety issues. The traditional farming system, though productive, has serious downsides which include food wastage, polluted ecosystems and significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  According to the United Nation’s (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and NASA, an additional 109 million hectares of new land will be needed to feed the world’s population by 2050.

Asia-Pacific has 422 million farmers, where most are smallholder farmers with less than 2 hectares (5 acres) of land each. These farmers face an uphill battle to access capital that makes it hard for them to boost yield, diversify into new crops or stay float when hit with a climate crisis.