The First Meeting of ASEAN Expert Group on Soil and Nutrient Management

German International Cooperation (GIZ) through the ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS) project hosted the First Meeting of the ASEAN Expert Group on Soil and Nutrient Management (SNM) for the ASEAN Guidelines on Soil and Nutrient Management (SNM), from 3^rd – 4^th December 2014 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The two-day meeting was attended by delegates from the nine ASEAN Members States (AMS).

Food security has been recognised as an importance agenda of ASEAN. In addressing long term food security and improve the livelihood of farmers in the region, there are need for ASEAN to provide regionally coordinated policy recommendations in particular to support sound management of soil and nutrient  in promoting sustainable agriculture and food production systems in the region.

In order to achieve this, the project aims i) to establish the Regional Technical Expert Group on Soil and Nutrient Management; and ii) to develop the ASEAN Guidelines on Soil and Nutrient Management.

• The First meeting of ASEAN Expert Group on SNM served as a face-to-face dialogue platform for ten senior experts from AMS to brainstorm ideas and discuss on the scope of guidelines, objectives, and target user. The Meeting also discussed their roles and responsibilities in drafting the ASEAN Guidelines. Thandar Nyi from Myanmar and Dr. Varughese Philipfrom the Philippines were elected as the chairperson and the vice chairperson of the Meeting, respectively

The key outcomes from the First meeting include:

• Tentative scope of the Guidelines to cover general property of soils in ASEAN; soil problems in ASEAN; good soil, nutrient and crop management practices; fertiliser regulations and standards.
• Term of Reference (TOR) of the Regional Technical ExpertsGroup in writing up the ASEAN Guidelines with support from national experts through national consultation meetings and fora.

The next expert group meeting will be held in April 2015 to discuss further on the draft outline of contents of ASEAN Guidelines on soil and nutrient management.

By Wannipa Soda, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems