Food security in the wider mekong region

Abstract

The wider Mekong Region can appear to be awash with food, as a walk through the colour and pungency of a market in almost any reasonably prosperous town will show. That about half the rice traded on world markets was cropped in the paddies of these lands, especially the Chao Phraya Plain and Mekong delta, might also suggest food is abundant and secure. For most people it is, but for a considerable minority it is not. Furthermore, the security of the resources employed by farmers and fishers to feed their communities and people around the world is in question because of the world's growing appetite for energy and materials.