Ministers from Burma, Cambodia, China's Yunnan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam have been working together since 1992 under the GMS Economic Cooperation Programme initiated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The programme has helped create transport corridors among the six countries, enabling faster trade of goods and increased economic growth.

Urooj Malik, director of the ADB's Southeast Asia Department, said agriculture must aim for a more prosperous yet socially equitable sector in which the full benefits of the "new agriculture" are shared by the poor.

Changes in the area have resulted in a range of new issues for the countries to address, such as possible effects of national and subregional food security on the rural poor, because of the switch from food to bioenergy crops.

New animal and crop disease risks are becoming prominent, especially with the recent outbreaks of avian influenza in some GMS countries.

To deal with these issues, the countries must increase their capacities in science and technology and create new policies, regulations and food-safety standards, the ADB said.

Over the past few years, an advisory body to the subregion's agriculture ministers has coordinated with a variety of stakeholders to create the Core Agriculture Support Programme. These stakeholders include government and donor agencies, as well as international and regional research and development organisations, non-governmental organisations and civil society.

The programme focuses on cross-border issues to encourage cross-border trade and investment in agriculture while contributing to food security and poverty reduction and ensuring the protection of the environment and sustainable use of natural resources.

Also included are the use of advanced agricultural science and technology in biosafety and biotechnology, policy and investment cooperation in biofuels and rural renewable energy and the establishment of emergency response systems for agriculture-related crises.

Viet Nam News,

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Beijing