ASEAN Food Security in an Era of Polycrisis: From Production-Centered Policy to Regional Resilience

Southeast Asia is simultaneously a major food-producing and food-exporting region and a region of persistent food insecurity. This apparent paradox is becoming more consequential as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) enters an era of “polycrisis”, in which climatic shocks, geopolitical conflict, energy and fertilizer price volatility, biological threats, trade restrictions, and economic pressures interact rather than occur as isolated events. This paper argues that ASEAN’s principal food security challenge is no longer simply whether enough food is produced; it is whether regional food systems can maintain availability, physical and economic access, utilization, and stability when several stresses occur at the same time. The region is collectively strong in rice, fish, and several other foods, yet remains highly dependent on imported wheat, soybeans, maize, and agricultural inputs. Vulnerability also differs sharply among ASEAN member states (AMS): some are structural exporters, others combine significant domestic production with selective import dependence, and states with limited natural resources rely heavily on trade. Existing national and ASEAN frameworks provide a substantial policy foundation, including the ASEAN Food, Agriculture, and Forestry Sectoral Plan 2026–30, the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework, the ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS), and the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR). ASEAN’s weakness lies less in the absence of policy than in uneven implementation, limited regional coordination, insufficient monitoring, and a continuing tendency to equate food security with domestic production and self-sufficiency. The paper proposes a shift toward resilience-centered strategy built on open intra-ASEAN trade, diversified external sourcing, stronger input security, climate-resilient and regenerative production, improved nutrition and social protection, better regional data and stress testing, and more effective mobilization of finance and technology. ASEAN’s comparative advantage is not to replace national policy but to manage cross-border risks that no AMS can manage alone.