ABSTRACT
Food security is one of the foremost challenges faced by the global community, especially by the developing world. Access to food is the most basic human right. Food insecurity can be driven by insufficient availability or insufficient access to food (FAO 2013). In 2010-12 there were about 870 million chronically undernourished people in the world (FAO 2012). Developing countries face a great challenge to provide sufficient food for their ever rising population on sustainable basis. As a result, food security has become a national issue for many countries, particularly in South and Southeast Asia. Attaining food security is also a major concern for India, where more than one-third of its population still suffers from hunger and malnutrition. Adequate food production, stability in domestic food supplies, malnutrition and the physical and economic access to food are the major concerns for India as well as for the Southeast Asian countries. In a sense, food insecurity is a regional problem that could be best tackled through effective regional approach. As ASEAN moves towards to establish an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, there is an urgent need for each ASEAN country to review its status of food security and cooperate with the spirit of regional perspective.
