Cres Ian Lorenzo
Last of two parts
I AM very pleased to announce that the Asean Food Security Alliance (AFSA), the legacy initiative of the Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC) Philippines, has successfully brought together 30 strategic joint ventures representing P30 billion in investments.
These partnerships are projected to generate 30,000 direct and indirect jobs across the agricultural value chain in Asean.
And this is good news as the Asean Business and Investment Summit will be held from Nov. 14 to 15, 2026, at the Solaire Resort in Parañaque, organized by Asean-BAC chaired by Joey Concepcion.
AFSA traces its conceptual roots to Go Negosyo’s Kapatid Angat Lahat Agri Program (Kalap), which pioneered the “big brother, small brother” business model by pairing established agribusinesses with smallholder farmers.
The premise behind AFSA is straightforward: the farmer integrated with a committed corporate partner gains reliable access to superior farm inputs, modern technology, structured financing, and, most importantly, a guaranteed market.
On the other hand, a small farmer working in isolation carries all the operational and climate risks, which can cause generational rural poverty.
With that premise, Concepcion has long championed the scaling up of smallholders as the vital path to breaking generational rural poverty. As he emphasized, without elevating small farmers, “we will never eradicate poverty in the agricultural sector.”
So, beginning in 2023, Asean-BAC Philippines expanded this inclusive business model across Southeast Asia. The council forged formal agreements with regional counterparts in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and other Asean member-states to unite private agricultural enterprises in joint ventures, technology exchanges, and cross-border market access.
And yours truly structured this collaborative framework around three core pillars:
– Agribusiness partnerships and joint ventures
– Technology transfer and innovation
– Policy formulation and harmonization
Before asking investors and regional corporations to commit billions, the alliance required scalable, proven proofs-of-concept. Three prominent agricultural champions demonstrated what resilient, partnership-driven agriculture achieves in practice.
Coconut (Mindanao): Bryan Thomas, CEO of Sytengral Global Solutions, works alongside coconut communities in Mindanao. Although coconut is one of the nation’s most widespread crops, smallholders have historically ranked among the poorest in the agricultural sector.
The partnership model proves that integrating value-chain processing and secured markets can transform an aging, low-margin crop into a reliable, high-value source of livelihood.
Seaweed (Bicol Region): Coastal farmer Jun Ocol, founder of Agrabah PH, supports coastal farming communities in the Bicol Region. While seaweed farming sustains thousands of coastal families, it faces severe vulnerabilities from typhoons, warming ocean temperatures, and volatile market prices.
Introducing better cultivation practices, post-harvest infrastructure, and assured corporate buyers dramatically increases the resilience of these coastal households.
Rice and high-value crops (Luzon and Mindanao): James Amparo, president of Yovel East Agriventures, has collaborated closely with rice and high-value crop farmers across Luzon and Mindanao.
By providing structured market access, modern inputs, and mechanization, Amparo has helped bridge productivity gaps. Having been part of AFSA’s delegation since its early days, Amparo helped shape the foundational private-sector partnerships with neighboring Asean councils.
These foundational success stories established the operational template for AFSA’s broader network of “Agri Champions.”
By demonstrating that the inclusive partnership model could succeed across diverse commodities, from coconut and seaweed to rice and high-value crops, the alliance created a reliable blueprint for regional replication.
Commodity by commodity and partner by partner, the AFSA collaborative framework expanded until the pipeline successfully reached 30 joint ventures, solidifying a transformative model for food security and inclusive economic growth across Southeast Asia.
I commend and congratulate every person and entity who contributed to this realization.
Vital contribution of Asean biologicals
I strongly believe Asean as a whole can attain food security because it has the biological ecosystem to support agricultural production.
Besides having productive soil and abundant water resources, Asean has biological resources in the form of indigenous plants and crops, that can be utilized for food production and other industrial applications.
I recommend seven priorities for advancing Asean’s agricultural biologicals:
First, establish clear, science-based regulation. Governments should provide transparent registration procedures, appropriate safety, and efficacy requirements, and predictable regulatory pathways.
Also, cooperation within Asean can help harmonize technical standards and testing protocols where appropriate, without compromising safety or product quality.
Second, strengthen research and field validation. This will require governments, universities, international research institutions, and private companies to work together to develop biological solutions suited to Asian crops, soils, and climates. Independent, multi-location field trials are essential for this aspect.
Third, guarantee product quality. Reliable standards for product identity, purity, viability, potency, stability, labeling, and storage must be strengthened. Quality assurance and effective post-market surveillance are fundamental to farmer confidence and industry credibility.
Fourth, integrate biologicals into regenerative farming systems. Biological products should complement soil-health management, balanced nutrition, crop diversification, water conservation, and integrated pest management. Demonstration farms, farmer field schools, and extension programs should show what works under actual farm conditions.
Fifth, mobilize investment and appropriate financing. Innovation grants, blended finance, credit guarantees, and investment partnerships can help credible enterprises move from research to commercialization. Farmers also need financing and carefully designed incentives to manage transition costs and adoption risks.
Sixth, strengthen farmer capability and confidence. Extension workers, cooperatives, farmer organizations, and responsible private-sector advisers must provide practical guidance on product performance, costs, application, and limitations.
Farmer-led trials and independent demonstrations should help establish confidence through evidence.
Seventh, let us position Asean and Asia as a platform for collaboration and innovation. Regional partnerships can strengthen research networks, regulatory dialogue, testing capacity, technology transfer, local manufacturing, and entrepreneurship.
Asia does possess extraordinary agricultural diversity, scientific talent, entrepreneurial energy, and market potential.
So, just think of the results if we capitalize on the biological advantage of Asia and Asean as we actively take AFSA from policy to action?
We can make Asia and Asean the leading producer of food globally, and ensure that every citizen of the continent have access to affordable and nutritious food.
Making AFSA a reality can also make the Asean’s agricultural and food sector an anchor for further reducing poverty in the region, and sustainable long-term economic growth.
This is not a dream — it is slowly becoming a reality.
