Organizer: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Type/Location: Hybrid / Singapore
Description:
The US-Israel attacks in Iran and the subsequent fallout are reshaping global food and energy markets in ways that directly affect Southeast Asia’s food security. This seminar examines how disruption to oil, gas and fertiliser flows through the Gulf is driving up production and transport costs, tightening fertiliser availability, and raising the risk of food price spikes across import‑dependent economies in the region. Hear from experts and practitioners in the field how disruptions to trade channels from the Straits of Hormuz to Southeast Asia is affecting farms, supply chains and consumers. It will assess the impact of ASEAN’s many recent policy initiatives on climate action and food security. This timely session will share recommendations for governments and the private sector to manage short‑term shocks while accelerating longer‑term resilience in input supply chains, trade diversification and sustainable farming systems.
About the Speakers:
Professor Paul Teng is Visiting Senior Fellow, Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and Senior Consultant, NIE International Pte. Ltd.. He is also Senior Fellow at SEARCA, Philippines, and Executive Director of The IRRI FUND, Singapore. Additionally, he advises several agtech startups. Paul previously held leadership positions in the Worldfish Centre, the International Rice Research Institute, Monsanto Company and U.S. universities. Professor Paul Teng is internationally recognized for his expertise in tropical agrifood systems and food security, with a focus on smallholder crops like rice. He has researched and taught in North America, Africa and Asia, and has published over ten books and over two hundred technical papers. Paul has been recognized for his work through the Eriksson Prize, election as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences and other professional societies and conferred an Honorary D.Sc. from Murdoch University, Australia.
Dr Siang Hee Tan is Executive Director of CropLife Asia, where he is responsible for directing Regulatory Affairs, Intellectual Property Rights, Crop Protection, Seeds and Biotechnology and Advocacy & Outreach programmes. His other professional experience includes establishing the University of Putra Malaysia’s Genome Centre, and management of two startup ventures developing bioinformatics software and prenatal genetic testing. At Sime Darby, he was responsible for: establishing the biotechnology section for the Sime Darby Technology Centre; project managing the Northern Corridor Economic Region Project on large-scale farming; and developing an agri-entrepreneur program. He was also the CEO of HLH-Agri International Pte Ltd. Dr. Tan holds a BSc in Plant Pathology from the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, an MSc in Genetic Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia and a PhD in Molecular Biology (Plant Virus) from Okayama University in Japan.
About the Discussants
Professor Sean De Cleene is a senior advisor to several international organisations. He was formerly a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum and a Senior Vice President at Yara International, the world’s leading crop nutrition company. In 2020, he was asked, by the UN Deputy Secretary General, to Chair the Innovation Lever of Change of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit. He is an Adjunct Professor on Food Systems and Sustainability at the Singapore Institute of Technology and a non-executive director of Grow Asia. He is highly regarded internationally for his work in brokering relevant transformational partnerships and business solutions, often involving a range of complex government, business and civil society interactions that have led to significant positive change in the area of food security, agricultural development, natural resource management, climate change, blended finance and innovation.
Dr. Alisher Mirzabaev is Senior Scientist for Policy Analysis and Climate Change at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with more than 20 years of experience in economic and policy analysis in academia and the private sector. Before joining IRRI in 2023, he was with the Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn, Germany. His previous professional experiences include working at the Center for Development Research, also University of Bonn, a consulting company Unique land use (Freiburg, Germany), ICARDA, and cotton ginning and trading industry in Uzbekistan. He has led about a dozen international projects with both global and regional focus on Africa and Asia. He has a PhD Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn and has written close to 200 scientific publications of different types on economics of land degradation and ecosystem restoration, climate change impacts and adaptation, water-energy-food security nexus, and economics of rice-based agrifood systems.
About the Moderator
Ms Elyssa Ludher is a food security expert and urban planner. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at ISEAS- Yusof Ishak Institute. Ms Ludher has contributed to food policy research at the World Bank, Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore, and the Singapore Food Agency. Ms Ludher’s publications have included “Rice Production and Food Security in SEA under Threat from El Niño”, “RICH Food Smart City”, “Food and the City: Overcoming Challenges for Food Security”, and “Preparing for a Climate Resilient Singapore”. She has a double Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning and Bioresource Engineering.
Registration:
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To attend the event virtually, please register here.