Cres Ian Lorenzo
FROM Nov. 14 to 15, 2026, the Asean Business and Investment Summit will be held at the Solaire Resort in Parañaque, organized by Asean Business Advisory Council (ABAC) chaired by Joey Concepcion.
During the event, I will be in the panel “Feeding Asean’s Future,” where I will discuss building growth and resilience for Southeast Asia’s agriculture through innovation, trade, and investment.
My premise is the future economic growth of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and regional prosperity is inseparable from the future of its agriculture sector.
I say this because agriculture is not merely about producing food. Rather, it is about creating wealth, generating jobs, empowering communities, strengthening economies, and securing the future of people in Asean.
But if we look at the state of Asean agriculture today, it is very clear it is facing numerous defining challenges: Climate change, geopolitical uncertainties, supply chain disruptions, rising production costs, and volatile food markets. Those are putting enormous pressure on the region’s agricultural and food production systems.
These challenges also present us with an opportunity — to rethink, reinvent, and transform Asean agriculture into a more productive, competitive, sustainable, and resilient economic powerhouse.
And three powerful engines will make that a reality: Innovation, trade, and investment.
Let me repeat: Innovation, trade, and investment.
Before deploying those three powerful engines, the first step is to make regenerative and resilient agriculture the foundation of growth of the region’s food system. I say this because we cannot build a prosperous agricultural future by exhausting the natural resources that sustain it, which is a pattern we see today that must be changed.
So, we must move from extractive to regenerative agriculture — from short-term productivity to long-term sustainability.
Currently, agriculture is largely extractive, or depletes water and soil, which can lead to long-term consequence such as reduced productivity. Worse, forests and surrounding ecosystems that support biodiversity are levelled to make way for giant farms or urban expansion.
The first step is to restore soil health, protect water resources, conserve biodiversity, promote climate-smart farming, and strengthen the capacity of our farmers to withstand climate shocks and market disruptions.
We must also make regenerative agriculture economically rewarding, or should result in increased productivity, improved farmers’ incomes, reduced risks, and creation of viable business opportunities.
Let us remember: Growth without sustainability is temporary. Resilience without economic growth is difficult to sustain. Asean needs both.
Innovation, trade, investments
Second, innovation must accelerate agricultural transformation.
We should be thankful that we are living in an era where artificial intelligence (AI), digital agriculture, biotechnology, precision farming, modern mechanization, and climate information systems are redefining food production. And we should take advantage of those.
So, we must bring these innovations beyond laboratories and corporate boardrooms and into the hands of our farmers, fisherfolk, cooperatives, and agricultural entrepreneurs.
This will require us to democratize access to technology, strengthen research and development, and accelerate technology transfer across Asean.
The overall goal is not simply to modernize agriculture, but to make it more productive, profitable, inclusive, and resilient.
Let us also abandon the mindset that innovation is measured by sophistication of technology, but by the difference it makes in the lives of our farmers and the communities they serve. An important aspect of this is the innovation can easily be adopted by the farmers, and be scaled without complications, especially among smallholders.
Third, trade and investment must unlock Asean’s enormous agricultural potential.
Thankfully, Asean has the natural resources, human talent, agricultural diversity, biodiversity, and increasing access to markets to become a major force in global food security.
But potential must be translated into economic opportunities through investments.
So, we need greater investments in irrigation, logistics, cold-chain systems, storage, food processing, digital infrastructure, and modern agricultural enterprises.
Asean trade should also be leveled up by improving market connectivity, harmonizing standards, facilitating cross-border movement of agricultural products, and building more reliable regional supply chains.
The medium- to long-term objective is to make Asean an attractive destination for responsible agricultural investments and a more competitive hub for food production, processing, and trade.
But in attracting investment to Asean, we should put in place policies that would ensure these would create value not only for businesses, but also benefits for the millions of smallholder farmers and small to medium producers who sustain our food systems.
So, let us create markets, let investment create opportunities, and let innovation create lasting prosperity, most especially for those that are disadvantaged and marginalized in the agriculture sector.
Aligned with Asean objectives
This vision is aligned with the priorities of the Asean Food Security Policy Framework and the Asean Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sectoral Plan 2026–2030.
Through the ABAC and its Asean Food Security Alliance (AFSA), we have the near-perfect opportunity to help translate these regional priorities into concrete business partnerships, investments, technology solutions, and inclusive agricultural development.
But this transformation requires a whole-of-society approach.
I therefore strongly advocate the 5Ps – public, private, producer, people, and partnership – to mobilize whole-of-society approach.
The public, particularly governments, must provide enabling policies, infrastructure, institutions, and an investment-friendly environment under the 5Ps.
As for the private sector, businesses and investors must bring in capital, technologies, innovation, entrepreneurship, and access to markets.
The government and private sector can also cooperate in getting more access to markets, and leveling up technology and innovation, among others.
For their part, farmers, fisherfolk, and cooperatives must be at the center of agricultural transformation, and this can be attained by giving them access to finance, technology, and profitable markets.
The people component in the 5Ps are the consumers and communities who must benefit from safe, nutritious, affordable food, decent livelihoods, and inclusive economic opportunities.
And partnership refers to all stakeholders who must work together to turn shared commitments into concrete projects, investments, and measurable results.
These 5Ps must become more than a framework. They must become the driving force of Asean’s agricultural transformation.
No government in Asean can do it alone. No business can do it alone. No farmer can do it alone. But together, we can achieve what none of us can accomplish individually.
So, here is my message to the participants of the Asean Business and Investment Summit — let us make the summit a turning point for turning commitments to investments, discussions to implementation, and individual initiatives to collective regional action.
Let us build an Asean where agriculture is not only productive, but regenerative; not only competitive, but resilient; not only profitable, but inclusive.
Let us create an agricultural economy where farmers are empowered, businesses are encouraged to invest, innovations are widely adopted, and regional trade drives shared prosperity.
Through innovation, trade, investment, and the collective power of the 5Ps, we can build an Asean agriculture that does not merely survive tomorrow’s challenges, but thrives in tomorrow’s opportunities.
In the last installment of this two-part column-series, I will discuss the role of agricultural biologicals to attaining a regenerative farming and food production system.
