The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Grow Asia have renewed their strategic partnership through a new five-year Memorandum of Understanding, reinforcing a shared ambition to fast-track agrifood systems transformation across Asia and the Pacific. Building on the outcomes of their 2021–2024 collaboration, the renewed agreement deepens the focus on resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability in a region where smallholder farmers and agrifood SMEs remain central to food security and rural livelihoods.

Over recent years, FAO and Grow Asia have developed a complementary partnership that combines FAO’s global technical and policy expertise with Grow Asia’s multi-stakeholder platform, which spans six country chapters and a network of more than 775 partners. This collaboration has strengthened agricultural value chains, promoted responsible private investment, and expanded the role of SMEs in shaping national and regional agrifood strategies.

The renewed MoU was formalized through a virtual signing ceremony , underscoring the intent of both organizations to move beyond project-level cooperation toward systems-level impact. The next phase of the partnership will prioritize digital transformation, climate resilience, gender equality, and inclusive financing as core enablers of smallholder productivity and agrifood enterprise growth.

A central pillar of the agreement is women’s economic empowerment across agricultural value chains. FAO and Grow Asia will work jointly to expand women’s access to skills, productive resources, leadership opportunities, and markets, recognizing that gender inclusion is both a development imperative and a driver of agricultural performance. The partnership will also support countries in strengthening climate resilience through climate-smart agricultural models, enabling policy frameworks, and innovative financing mechanisms that can mobilize capital for farmers, cooperatives, and SMEs.

Digital transformation will form another key axis of collaboration, with efforts focused on improving digital literacy, scaling digital advisory services, strengthening agricultural data ecosystems, and fostering innovation among agritech startups and small enterprises. In parallel, FAO and Grow Asia will intensify engagement with the private sector to ensure that SME voices are better represented in policy dialogues, helping align national and regional agrifood policies with on-the-ground realities and market needs.

By aligning FAO’s technical depth with Grow Asia’s regional networks and implementation platforms, the renewed partnership is positioned to deliver more integrated, scalable solutions to the region’s agrifood challenges. As Asia-Pacific countries confront mounting climate risks, market volatility, and food security pressures, the collaboration aims to translate global expertise into locally grounded action, advancing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals while strengthening resilience across the region’s agrifood systems.