The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) warning about global food price inflation “exacerbating the troubles of the world’s most vulnerable nations” comes at a very difficult time for countries like Pakistan, which are already struggling with high inflation, especially in food items, and a substantial reduction in most people’s purchasing power because of the pandemic. International food prices are currently 40 percent higher than last May, which is also the sharpest increase on record since September 2011. And in just the last year price of corn is up 88 percent, soybean 73 percent, grain, and dairy products 38 percent, sugar 34 percent, and meat 10 percent. With most third world countries still trying to stitch together stimulus packages to offset unprecedented unemployment and underemployment levels, out-of-control food prices now have the United Nations (UN) worried about a repeat of “food riots” that were sparked in cities across the world by the 2007-08 international financial meltdown. The 2010-11 Arab Spring, too, was triggered when staple food became unaffordable for most average people in Tunisia and Egypt. Indeed, things looked so grim when the pandemic first forced the whole world to lock down that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) actually warned of “famines of Biblical proportions” if corrective measures were not taken at once. Fortunately, the lockdowns didn’t last as long as first expected and some of the pressure wore off. Now, though, other factors like rebounding Brent crude price in the international market and an explosion in sea freight costs are also paying a big part in inflating food prices in poor countries. In Pakistan, as everybody knows, most of last year’s 8.9 percent inflation was caused by food inflation, which remained in double digits and was up by 13.2 percent over the previous year. And here food prices have a more pronounced effect than most other countries because it makes the staple diet unaffordable for a very big bulk of the population, which can in fact make all the difference between life and death in certain cases. This particular concern about daily wagers, etc, who are at the very bottom of the food chain, made the prime minister reject the idea of a total lockdown even during the first wave of the pandemic. But with the food itself spiraling out of the average person’s reach, the government is going to have to find out-of-the-box solutions very quickly, because any missteps on this front can even derail the expansionist trajectory of the new fiscal year’s budget. The PM has wisely put enhancing agriculture output at the centre of his government’s turnaround strategy. It’s already something of a shame that a predominantly agriculture-driven economy like Pakistan’s has to go shopping for food in the international market. Hopefully whatever steps are being put in place to lift the agriculture sector will show results sooner rather than later and Pakistan will be spared the worst of food inflation that is about to shake the developing world. *