Food security is an important part of a country’s stability and development, ensuring that all people always have enough food to stay healthy. In Pakistan, food security is a major issue that affects the economy, people’s health, and social fairness.
It highlights the problems in a country that produces enough staple and non-staple crops but is still struggling with food security due to a growing population and poor environmental conditions. The discussion also includes the economic and social costs of food insecurity and the need for effective policy responses. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food security means that everyone always has physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to lead an active, healthy life. The main aspects of food security include:
1. Food Availability: Having enough food regularly from domestic production or imports.
2. Food Access: The types of foods available in homes, not just at the dinner table but also in pantries and refrigerators.
3. Security: Ensuring that food supplies are not disrupted by sudden events like weather crises or seasonal shortages.
4. Utilization: Using food effectively through a proper diet, clean water, and healthcare to maintain nutritional well-being.
Even though Pakistan is one of the top producers worldwide in wheat, rice, and sugarcane and it holds the 13th position in milk production, significant population growth has increased our poverty – its food security condition concerns. The National Nutrient Survey 2018 found that only 63.1 percent of households can be classified as “food secure,” but the remaining 36.9 percent went hungry, from mild to moderate hunger, and severe hunger (18.3 percent).
Pakistan is afflicted by some of the most severe food security challenges including high levels of malnutrition, fiscal constraints, and environmental degradation.
Pakistan is below countries of lower-middle-income levels in a number of food security indicators. Malnutrition is widespread with half of children under five stunted and wasting rates much higher. This malnutrition per se is a drain on economic productivity and health that costs roughly 3 percent of GDP annually. At 106, Pakistan is in the ‘serious’ category of hunger with a score of only little. It also happens to be one of the countries being accounted for almost two-thirds of the international undernourishment population. The average dietary energy supply in Pakistan is 108 percent of daily requirements; a little bit lower than the average for all countries (113 percent); but also shockingly close to one hundred already-an amazing accomplishment given how poor this country really is. Substantial undernourishment (20.5 percent) and economic power less than other lower-middle-income countries in terms of low GDP per capita (US$ 4,857.2).
High rates of corruption coupled with dependency on food imports affect political stability and undermine local-level social structures, promoting a decline in the survival strategies that rural communities employ for addressing farm management mitigate insufficiencies as well. Water and sanitation conditions are among the worst in all of South Asia, leading to high rates of anemia and stunting among children. More than 20 percent of Pakistan’s population lives in abject poverty (and the cover food) with significant rural/urban differences: food insecurity is more prevalent among those living below the poverty line, especially in rural areas where rates are much higher.
This is an economic barrier that prevents the poorest from having access to healthy food. However, dependence on imports for some food and global pricing can impact affordability and stability. In short, neglecting local production of minor crops and livestock leads to price volatility and nutritional insecurity.
Commodities safety nets administered by the government are able to prevent dramatic price spikes of a few major crops, but have limitations as full-scale social protection programs. Food insecurity is further compounded by inefficiencies and inequalities in social protection coverage. Due to low extension and degradation, staple food crop productivity is under threat, making Pakistan lock away from self-sufficiency in basic need grains.
These conditions lead to loss in soil fertility and limitation on agricultural productivity, such as waterlogging, salinity, and erosion. Productivity gains are constrained by the present cropping system and water-excessive methods. Innovative methods like hydroponics and vertical farming are going to take a lot of money, but time as well. Food security too is hardly helped by rapid population expansion.
If nothing is done to reverse these trends, the government’s cost of food security (food subsidies and social safety nets) would increase dramatically. The Draft National Food Security Policy 2018 sets out several possible objectives in confronting food security challenges, such as improving agricultural productivity, nutrition, and water resources. It is yet essential that the policy be implemented well, and no less significant are its implications for food security vis-à-vis a growing population. Pakistan is afflicted by some of the most severe food security challenges including high levels of malnutrition, fiscal constraints, and environmental degradation. A holistic solution to these problems needs a combination of better agricultural management, specific income support as well as sensible use of policy measures. Achieving food security is important for a country’s economic stability as that of people.
The writer is research intern at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, she can be reached at Minhalsaad5@gmail.com