What is Food Security?

Although the concept of food security was introduced only 16 years ago, people around the globe have been suffering from famine and hunger for many decades. It is currently one of the significant security issues in many parts of the world, especially after the ongoing pandemic COVID-19. As defined in the World Food Summit Declaration 1996, food security means “having at all times, both physical and economic, access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy lifestyle.”

There are three main aspects of food security. The first is food availability, having a sufficient supply of food available consistently. The second aspect is food access, to have adequate income resources to access food, and the third aspect is food utilization, which means having adequate dietary intake and the ability to absorb and use nutrients in the body.

Over the coming decades, climate change, globally increased world population, rising food prices have had a significant impact on food security. As per the global report of food crises 2021, more than 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity worldwide in 2020. Recently a meeting of G20 was held in Italy, where it was discussed that the number of people affected by hunger globally has been increasing since 2014. The meeting also mentioned that the world was not on track to end malnutrition, which is among the 2030 aims of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The meeting also said that “With current trends, the number of people affected by hunger would exceed 840 million by 2030”.

The right to food is set in Article 25(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 as “to have access to safe, nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right to everyone to be free from hunger to be able fully to develop and maintain their physical and mental capacities.”

Food Security in Pakistan

Pakistan has been thriving to attain sustainable development goal two, to overcome food insecurity by achieving zero hunger for its entire population by 2030. Under Articles 38 and 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan, it is observed that the rights of the individuals include appropriate security of food to overcome malnutrition and early age deaths. Despite these goals and efforts made by the government, there are persisting food security issues in the country.

Food Security Issues in Pakistan

·        The national security survey shows that 36.9%of the population faces food insecurity. The survey also showed the second highest rate of malnutrition in the region with 18% of children under 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, around 40% of the nutrition in the same age group are stunted and 29% are underweight.

·        Although, in recent years, Pakistan has been a food Surplus County, yet a large section of the population faces food insecurity and malnutrition. According to FAO, the trend in the last 15 years shows that the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) in Pakistan has fallen from 25.8% in 2001-03 to 20.3% in 2016-18.

·        The PoU has declined since 2001-03 with a reduction that has been pronounced up to 2007-09, then remaining at around 20%.

·        To be specific, households in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan and households in rural areas across the country are more likely to be food insecure due to scarcity of water resources, change in climate conditions, and unequal distribution of food production.

·        Another problem that has risen is the gap between the provincial and central governments regarding addressing food security, despite the 18th Amendment, which devolves agriculture and food security to the provincial level.

Climate Change and Food Security

Another major issue due to which food security has risen in the country is the frequent cyclic nature of droughts, floods, and disease/ pathogens incidence. Pakistan is ranked as the eighth most vulnerable country to climate change as it has experienced extreme climatic events in the recent past. There have been 150 freak weather incidents in the past 20 years, flash floods, drought, smog in winter, forest fires in summer, and melting of glaciers. The agriculture sector has faced huge losses due to these disasters, and annual losses reached up to USD 1,700 million in 2010, mainly due to floods.

Severe droughts in the province of Sindh and Baluchistan has also affected the food production in these areas directly and indirectly. These droughts affect livelihood, especially where they are more weather dependent such as; overgrazing, poor water management, rain-fed agriculture, and weak environmental management are common issues of drought-prone areas of Pakistan.

Land Access and Food Security

The issue regarding access to land, including the security of tenure for those who do not own land, is a fundamental determinant of food security in an agriculture-based rural economy. In Pakistan, there are various arrangements whereby small farmers and landless men and women may work on the land of more prominent landowners, either as sharecroppers, tenants, or agricultural laborers. In some areas, the laborers may be at least partly paid in wheat or other staple grains rather than cash. Large landowners may also follow a custom of selling aside some land area for their share croppers to self-produce food such as vegetables for immediate needs. However, with the recent focus on cash crops, this practice is declining. Although governments have attempted several land reforms to the land access system during the history of Pakistan, these have only had limited success, contributing to the persistence of food security.

COVID-19 and Food Security

In addition to the issues mentioned above, the outbreak of ongoing pandemic COVID-19 caused an acute shortage of food across the country and increased food items’ prices as well. Food items such as vegetables, fruits, chicken also became expensive, adding to the miseries of the majority. An average Pakistani household spends 50.8% of monthly income on food, which makes them particularly vulnerable to shocks, including high food prices. Constant shortages of these items propelled the crises and made the food items inaccessible. Moreover, the prices have been increasing post-2018, causing a massive break in the affordability of food.

The PBS, May 2020, shows a general inflation rate of 8.2% in the country, increasing from 5% in May 2018. For the same period, the general rural inflation rate has doubled, from 4.5 to 9.7%. Therefore, the biggest challenge in the present time is to devise a suitable strategic plan for improving the economic, food, and health systems in Pakistan for preventing and preparing for similar outbreaks from intensifying into full-blown social and economic crises.

Food Security Policies in Pakistan

By the mid-’90s, food security was recognized as a significant concern in Pakistan. The five-year plan from 1956-60 and the 6th five-year plan focused on food security and the development of rural areas to improve their health conditions. Almost 64% of the population of Pakistan resides in rural areas and earns its livelihood from agricultural activities. According to the POFI report, Pakistan has shown a gradual improvement over the years, but regional and income inequalities persist.

In 2000-02, about 22% of Pakistan’s population was undernourished, and in 2017-19, this dropped to 12%, showing a 45% improvement. The government launched a ‘Zero Hunger’ program to tackle food insecurity, but the program faced difficulties due to a lack of trust between the federal and provincial governments. The government also recently introduced a large anti-poverty initiative, which aims to provide employment, healthcare, and women empowerment in Pakistan.

The government of Pakistan also made some efforts to improve land tenure governance by drawing on the internationally recognized voluntary guidelines for responsible governance of land tenure, fisheries, and forestry in national food security that FAO developed.

Recently, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research developed a National Food Security policy in 2018 to ensure a fair and efficient food production and distribution system. More, specifically to alleviate poverty, eradicate hunger and achieve sustainable food production systems. Moreover, in 2020, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan approved the first-ever food security policy for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, consisting of short and long-term planning. The policy aimed to generate employment opportunities by achieving higher sustainable food security and alleviating poverty.

Future of Food Security in Pakistan

The food security situation in Pakistan is perilous, and the government has been taking steps to address this problem since it has become a matter of national security. Given the continuously rising population of Pakistan, the food demands of the country shall naturally increase, and the government needs to work on food production to feed a growing population with some modest surplus for export.

In order to maintain the growth, there must be at least a 5% growth rate in the agriculture sector rate to ensure the rapid growth of national income, attaining macroeconomics, effective employment of growing labor, and eradication of poverty in rural areas of the country. Although little has been done to implement the policies unveiled by the government and without addressing the roots of Pakistan’s food security problems, the country is likely to continue to face the same problem for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion

In the light of the preceding facts, recently, while speaking at the National Kissan Convention in Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Pakistan’s “biggest challenge” in the future would be food security. He highlighted the ongoing issues regarding food security in Pakistan and said that the government would be launching a nutrition program under the Ehsaas program. The PM also emphasized that the steps taken by the government are taken with a view that Pakistan becomes a food exporter rather than food insecure.

The current situation in Pakistan calls for improving food safety along with the food supply chain and reducing food quality losses. In particular, to ensure that the food supply is healthy for the consumer, retailers and food outlet owners should be incentivized and encouraged to sell safe foods. Furthermore, close collaboration is required between the ministries, departments, food security authorities, innovations and technologies, labeling, and standards. Moreover, policy implications are warranted, focusing on increasing the climate change awareness programs, increasing access to agricultural extension education, and strengthening the affordability capacity of the poor farm households. 

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