Clone of Regenerative Agriculture Emerges as a Regional Priority in ASEAN

On November 4^th Singapore’s Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu announced that the government has scrapped its “30-by-30” food self-sufficiency target due to land limits as well as high labor and energy costs. Singapore now aims to produce 20% of national fiber needs and 30% of protein needs by 2035, supported by a four-pillar strategy: diversifying imports, boosting local production, stockpiling, and building global partnerships. In October, it forged government-to-government deals with Vietnam on rice and New Zealand on essential food items. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is also conducting a feasibility study for a multi-tenant farming facility, which CEO Damian Chan says could become the first of its kind globally.   

The Government of Malaysia is finalizing a new agricultural policy under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, focusing on productive and efficient agro-food systems. The policy will be reinforced by legislation to standardize implementation across ministries. Meanwhile, Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Ghani outlined measures to revive idle farmland: the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is scaling up its Smallholders’ Oil Palm Replanting Program 2.0 (50% grant, 50% loan) to encourage smallholders to replace ageing and unproductive trees with high-quality planting materials, the Malaysian Rubber Board is launching an Idle Rubber Consolidation Program to replant mature and abandoned areas, and the Malaysian Cocoa Board is promoting integrated cocoa planting with other crops and farm rejuvenation through intensive pruning/top grafting, and R&D on new disease-resistant varieties. 

At the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 1, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Indonesia is beginning to see concrete results from AI-enabled agriculture, which is helping increase productivity toward rice and corn self-sufficiency. On November 6, Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman announced plans to establish new poultry and broiler farms in regions where egg and chicken prices exceed national reference rates. He attributed rising demand to the government’s free nutritious meal program, which will require an additional 700,000 tons of eggs and 1.1 million tons of chicken meat. Overall, these updates underscore an evolving food security landscape in ASEAN that U.S. companies may want to monitor for emerging collaboration and market entry points.