Daily Times

Alarming are the figures that frown at our system as according to a report, 40 per cent food in Pakistan gets wasted, 43 per cent of the population remains food insecure, whereas 18 per cent faces a severe shortage.

Sad state of affairs of governance has been depicted in the report of the Global Food Security Index of 2020, which ranked Pakistan at 80th position out of 113 countries.

Pakistan ranks at 88th out of 132 countries across the globe in the Global Hunger Index. According to World Food Program estimates, 43 per cent of the population remains food insecure, with 18 per cent facing acute shortage.

Principles of governance glorified in the Islamic structure of state need to be implemented in letter and spirit as we all know that the Islamic System embodies the true spirit of humanitarianism as was evident in the system of governance established by the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) more than fourteen hundred years ago.

Sadly, today hunger and deprivation shake the very structure of a state, which were once enshrined as a pivot of state policy that revolved around the principles devised by Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA). He said: “if a dog dies hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates, Umar will be responsible for dereliction of duty”.

We, in Pakistan today, suffer from a shocking level of hunger as reported by the Global Hunger Index 2020.

A 2018 National Nutrition Survey shows that 60 per cent of the population in Pakistan still faces food insecurity.

The same survey also shows that 15 per cent of the children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition. In the same age group, nearly 44 per cent children are underdeveloped and 32 per cent are underweight.

Other provinces should follow Punjab’s initiative to reduce food wastage.

With an alarming figure of more than 2 billion tons of food going to waste in the world, an estimated 815 million human beings sleep hungry, in which the Asian continent has the share of 520 million people. We, as human beings, should remember that food insecurity and violent conflicts go hand in hand hence the deprivation of nearly 815 million can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Violent strife and colossal uncertainty breed on scarcities of resources and food shortages.

When, in 2008, global food prices rose sharply, its tremors were felt in the form of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Millions of people do not have access to healthy or balanced meals, while well-off individuals waste food on a daily basis.

We actually waste around 36 million tons of food annually. Weddings, parties, and hotels are responsible for about 40 per cent of food wastage.

In the United States, 30 per cent of all food, worth USD 48.3 billion (€32.5 billion), is thrown away each year. It is estimated that about half of the water used to produce the food also goes to waste, since agriculture is the largest human use of water.

Food wastage might take place at different phases of food chain such as production, processing, retailing, and consumption: however, in all of its forms, food wastage is a global crunch.

It affects the physical health of the planet and the entire populace of the world.

According to a recent UN Environment Program (UNEP) report, we waste roughly one-third of the global food produced for human consumption (approximately 1.3 billion tons).

Highly commendable step by the Punjab Food Authority in order to curtail the unbridled food wastage is the formation of a regulation, “Disposal of Excess Food Regulation 2019”. Now according to the Prime Minister’s Ehsaas Program food operators, all those who manufacture food items for sale, transport, storage, distribution or trade are bound to donate excess food to donors.

This has led to wide scale donations distributed amongst the teeming masses in order to ameliorate the sufferings of the underprivileged class in Pakistan. The primary objective is to provide excess food to deserving masses.

Other provinces should follow Punjab’s initiative to reduce food wastage. In particular, such regulation should be implemented on a national level. It would help us in achieving zero-hunger goal.

In order to improve governance, government in Pakistan needs to adopt measures such as restricting ostentatious meals in weddings, and massive campaign should be launched in order to spread awareness with regards to the food wastage.

Today, during trying times, it is believed according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that around 690 million people went hungry in 2019, and these figures would continue to rise, as the world is combating a pandemic.

One wonders if the wounds of hunger will ever come to an end. Will the common man’s plight of hunger be ever healed?

The writer is a freelancer.