Abstract
The main focus of the paper is to analyse the contribution which agriculture and food policy can make towards solving nutrition problems of Asia. These problems need to be seen in the overall agricultural setting of the Region. Fortunataly, this setting is characterized by many promising features including achievement by the Asian Region of a satisfactory rate of growth of food production in the last decade. Some countries in the Region have still to accelerate their rate of production but, for most countries.
Scope of the paper
The subject assigned to the Panel is described as Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Policies in Solving Nutrition Problem in Asia. This is a rather vast subject and has several components. I, therefore, deliberately propose to delimit the scope of this paper. First of all, I would iike to point out that nutritional problems in Asia can be described as belonging to two broad categories, namely, problems of undernutrition and problems of malnutrition. This paper will essentially deal with the role of agriculture and food policies in relation to problems of undernutrition only.
Another limitation of this paper may also bo stated. While the subject assigned to the Panel ! for discussion is nutrition problems in Asia, my presentation will be confined to a discussion of the situation in those countries of Asia which fall within the jurisdiction of FAO Regional the principle outstanding is going to be in the area of introducing equitv in food distribution and consumption. This underlines the need for an appropriate mix of agricultural, food and rural development policies and programs. Simultaneously, it will be necessary that nutritional objectives are introduced at an appropriate stage in agricultural planning and objectives. In this context, nutrition should be seen as a strategy and an objective rather than as a sector by itself.
Office for Asia and the Pacific. These are 20 countries and include Pakistan and all Asian countries to the east of Pakistan. These are, alphabetically, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kampuchea, Kprea (DPR ) , Korea (Rep.) , Lao Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. It may be noted that West Asian countries are not included in the analysis in my paper.