Pakistan: Food security

The phenomenon of food insecurity is believed to be quite rampant in Pakistan.

According to a research report issued by the State Bank on 6th April, 2012, 21 million out of 56 million people or over 37 percent of the population living in the urban areas of the country were food insecure and the government was advised to "reduce the risk of a severe hunger-like situation".

Citing the reasons for such a desperate situation, the SBP noted that Pakistan was vulnerable to food insecurity due to slowdown in the availability of irrigation water, slower growth of food crops, insufficient storage capacity, higher post-harvest losses, weaker management, ongoing war against terrorism, rising trade deficit, high inflation and rising cost of production, including high oil prices.
Pakistan was also facing food insecurity challenges due to population growth, and substitution of food crop lands with bio-fuel crops.

Population consuming less than 1700 calories per day, which was far below the international levels, had also increased from 35 million to 45 million during last couple of years.

Wheat was the staple food for Pakistanis but its yield per acre was almost stagnant over a decade while the population was still growing at a fast rate.
As far as the role of financial institutions in alleviating food insecurity was concerned, the report of the State Bank reiterated the point that due to the importance of the agriculture sector in the economy, banks had taken a keen interest in the disbursement of loans but the supply of loanable funds was not sufficient to meet the aggregate requirements.

Besides, the rate of non-performing loans had increased from Rs 28.8 billion or 16.5 percent in December, 2010 to Rs 32 billion or 17 percent by December, 2011.

According to the SBP report, the measures which could be helpful in reducing the risk of a severe hunger-like situation included effective policies in the areas of research, water irrigation, skilled labour, technology, transportation and marketing.
Although there was already ample evidence of growing food insecurity in Pakistan, yet the State Bank's report seems to be another effort to highlight the issue in its proper perspective, emphasising in particular the severity of the problem and the steps that could be taken to get out of this dismal situation.

The irony is that the situation is going from bad to worse in a country which is endowed with an abundance of resources in this particular field and had enough potential not only to feed its own population but to satisfy the needs of some other countries.

Unfortunately, we have miserably failed to fully utilise this natural advantage and are now facing the consequences of this negligence in the form of prevalence of hunger on a vast scale.

While the report has underlined factors responsible for the country's failure to reduce hunger and also advanced several proposals to redress the situation, some of the problems, in our view, need particular attention on an urgent basis.

First and foremost is the need to ensure a reasonable balance at the earliest between the population growth and increase in the production of food crops and then move to a situation where the latter variable exceeds the former as soon as possible.

At the current population growth rate, for instance, food availability has to be increased by at least 4 percent to reduce the severity of the problem, over a reasonable period of time.
Lowering the population growth rate by a sizable margin is probably more important in our context since it would reduce the average need for food for a few decades.

We are emphasising on cutting the population growth and enhancing the domestic food production because global food prices have rocketed to record levels in real terms since 1984 and Pakistan would not be in a position to afford the import of necessary food stuffs due to a very tight balance of payments position.

Secondly, there is a view in the country that the present food insecurity is not basically due to the lack of availability of food but because of increasing inequalities of incomes, which has greatly increased the number of poor people and exposed them to food insecurity.
Export of wheat and rice from the country is generally quoted as an evidence to prove this point.

Obviously, if this is the case, social protection programmes like BISP, Waseela-e-Haq and Bait-ul-Mal have failed to make the right impact and the government needs to reconsider its entire policy framework to reverse the situation.

The increase in the support price of wheat, for instance, may have aggravated the problem of food insecurity in the urban areas where employment opportunities have been fast shrinking due mainly to severe energy shortages.

Also, increased flow of credit to the agriculture sector, which could have improved the productivity of food crops, was partly hampered by frequent announcements of write-off of loans by the government on one pretext or the other.
Such an attitude has encouraged the farmers to delay the repayment of credit advanced to them and increased the level of non-performing loans in the agriculture sector.

Banks now find it much more convenient and rewarding to extend credit to established businesses in the urban areas and invest in government paper.

Needless to say that food insecurity is the worst form of deprivation and could force a person to beg, steal or join some militant organisation to overcome hunger pangs.

It is, therefore, time for the government to devise a workable plan to reduce the severity of the problem earnestly before it becomes too difficult to handle.