In recent years, developing countries, China and India in particular, have been working hard to provide enough food for their explosively increasing populations; consequently, the agricultural sectors of those countries have achieved outstanding progress in satisfying their growing populations’ nutritional needs. At the same time however, their land and water resources, which form the foundation of any sustainable and self-sufficient food supply, are being used at an unprecedented rate. This has created a situation in which many developing countries’ natural resources are either in a state of depletion or on the verge of complete exhaustion. Moreover, they are now facing the secondary problem of paying for the increased environmental and health costs that arise as a by-product, like air pollution, desertification and surface runoff.

If the developing countries keep up this pace of natural resource usage, with their increased domestic demands, agricultural self-sufficiency will ultimately decrease to the point of threatening their food security. Therefore, an analysis of the current trends in agricultural technological innovation is urgently needed in order to devise appropriate strategies to tackle imminent problems and issues.

It is recommended that developing countries should take notice of the following points: (i) technology is the key to sustainable production and consumption; (ii) self-innovation in agricultural technology is a ‘must’ to move away from the tendency to excessively rely on developed countries for assistance; (iii) focusing on the increase of technology-oriented production is requested; and lastly (iv) the reformation of agricultural technology and mechanisms will bring sustainable agricultural development. On the other hand, it was found that the main hindrances in agricultural technological development are: (i) the lack of awareness regarding agricultural technological innovation; (ii) absence of effective methods to disseminate agricultural technology; and (iii) limitations in pursuing technological innovation.

Based on the above observations, capacity building training for government officials and civil society leaders in the Asia-Pacific region is required. This upcoming workshop will provide the participants with approaches and strategies for (i) agricultural technology policy establishment and implementation; (ii) research and development for agricultural input industry; (iii) investment in production line and research clusters; (iv) expansion of joint research projects and exchange of agricultural experts; and (v) devising of cooperation programs for effective global exchange.