Greetings from CAPSA to all our valued readers.

"Palawija News", for the first quarter of 2010 is in your hands. It is being published when Mr. LeRoy Hollenbeck has been appointed as Head of APCAEM, Beijing after a stint at CAPSA. I record our appreciation for the work he did during the transition phase and, I am sure, you will join me to wish him well in his new assignment. We look forward to your continued support to the efforts of the Executive Secretary, UNESCAP to re-orient and re-resource CAPSA so that it can become a vibrant Centre for poverty alleviation.

The issue of food security is central to the well-being of the people of Asia-Pacific. This issue of "Palawija News", no wonder it has two related but distinct articles on food security.

The article on "Food Security Assessment under Climate Change Scenario in Malaysia" is an important methodological contribution to assessing food security situation in one country; it can be used to make similar assessments in other countries of the region. A suite of assessment would assist in generating a debate that could lead to formation of an inter-national response to food insecurity due to climate change in Asia-Pacific. There are several national responses, both mitigation and adaptation, to climate change, an international response is missing so far.

The second article, "Fundamental Factors of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development for Kone Taung Village Tract in Myanmar", is a case study that could be germane to developing action point for promoting sustainable agriculture at the micro-level with the possibility of scaling it up for a meso level action point. This is important because agriculture is space specific and hence we need local solutions to local problems (noting that local can be village or a larger land mass or micro and meso). We hope this will generate a typology of action plan for sustainable agriculture at the micro-meso levels.

Developing these dimensions of food security could contribute towards, what UNESCAP's Executive Secretary, said: turning the Centre "into a member-driven regional centre of excellence that focuses on poverty alleviation through secondary crops.

Happy reading!!

Amitava Mukhrejee
CAPSA