Price hikes altering food patterns in Pakistan: Oxfam

Just 45% of Pakistanis surveyed barely have enough to eat daily.

ISLAMABAD:

A majority of Pakistanis believe that a double-digit price hike in food items has changed their eating patterns, according to a new global report on food prices.

Forty-four per cent of the 16,000 Pakistanis questioned as part of a survey for Oxfam’s GROW campaign said that their diet had changed because of rising food prices while 32 per cent cited health reasons as the cause behind the dietary choices they make.

“Our diets are changing fast and for too many people, it is a change for the worse,” said Neva Khan, Oxfam country director for Pakistan.

“A huge number of people, especially the poorest, are cutting back on the quantity or quality of food they eat because of rising food prices,” she added.

In Pakistan, there has been a consistent rise in the prices of food and beverages. In June, the government’s Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) reported that food and beverage prices in May had increased by 15.8 per cent against the same period last year while prices of perishable food items increased by 17.8 per cent.

According to the survey, 57 per cent of Pakistanis are not eating the same food that they did two years ago when the food crisis began. But what is even more alarming is that 45 per cent of Pakistanis that Oxfam spoke to said they always had enough food to eat on a daily basis. By far, cost was the biggest worry with over half (51 per cent) of respondents in Pakistan, citing it as one of their top concerns. Twenty-eight per cent of people surveyed in Pakistan said they were concerned about the availability of food whilst 19 per cent of people said that healthiness or nutritional value of food they eat is also a key concern.

When asked about the most important factor affecting food supply of food, 28 per cent of respondents in Pakistan highlighted weather patterns and catastrophic events, 26 per cent agreed that government policies in Pakistan and elsewhere were factors and 23 per cent cited the rising price of oil and other transport costs .

The supply of food, says Oxfam, must be improved in Pakistan. “The government needs to undertake substantial agriculture reform and provide stronger land rights for landless poor farmers, provide the required fertilisers, seed and storage facilities needed so poor farmers can grow food and bring rising food prices under control,” Khan says.

Oxfam’s international GROW campaign and Pakistan’s newly-established Dharti campaign are collaborating to ensure that everyone around the world always has enough to eat. The surveys for this report were carried out by international research consultancy GlobeScan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2011.