Since 2018, the APO Special Program for Capacity Building of Sustainable Food Value Chains for Enhanced Food Safety and Quality in Asian Countries has focused on increasing productivity in agriculture and the food industry in the region under a special cash grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.

A major focus of the program is food supply problems caused by climate change, demographic structural shifts, and trade liberalization. All these have become more serious during the COVID-19 pandemic. Global policies restricting movement and contact in response to the pandemic have had major impacts on food supply chains. Disconnections between the supply and demand sides have also increased food safety concerns. To establish a more sustainable, standardized management system, it is crucial to adopt disaster-resilient solutions in response to different scenarios and use smart agricultural technologies to increase high-quality production.

The 2021 International Conference on Agriculture Transformation was conducted by the APO and China Productivity Center, Republic of China (ROC), from 26 to 27 October 2021. It discussed and disseminated knowledge on the adoption of technologies in agriculture, shared successful cases of introducing smart, innovative agricultural technologies, and created opportunities for multidisciplinary cooperation and resource integration in the agriculture sector. The conference was conducted with 10 resource persons from the ROC and two from Japan and attended by more than 300 local participants.