Food insecurity
There is also a dire need to expand the amount of land under agricultural production
In its third quarterly report on the state of the economy, the SBP has revealed that 36.9% of the country’s households are ‘food insecure’, and about half of them i.e. 18.3% are facing ‘severe’ food insecurity. The figures are indeed alarming, but they are also astonishing as our country is self-sufficient in all major food staples and ranks 8th in the world in the production of wheat, 10th in rice, 5th in sugarcane and 4th in milk production.
What, then, prevents public access to foodstuffs in our country? A major problem lies in ours being a largely undocumented economy which has failed to ensure fair competition among suppliers to keep prices down. About 93% of Pakistan’s farmers are smallholders who own less than four hectares of land. Most of these farmers lack the funds to cultivate crops and are forced to accept money for the purpose from unscrupulous middlemen who subsequently buy the produce from them at low prices and then sell it at markets at high mark-ups.
The SBP report cites the country’s population growth rate as a threat to food security. It is, therefore, essential for us to take immediate steps to increase our agricultural productivity and curb population growth. A major problem hampering our agricultural output is our per hectare crop yield which lags behind both global and regional competitors. This problem can only be effectively addressed if we emphasise the production of high-quality seeds through a strong partnership between agricultural biotechnology research institutes and private sector seed producing firms.
It is also important that we increase water use efficiency for crop cultivation by improving our irrigation management and irrigation water quality and, in addition to wheat, also consider producing crops such as sorghum and millet which require less water and are more nutritious than wheat. There is also a dire need to expand the amount of land under agricultural production and to encourage farmers to use modern technology to increase crop yields.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2019.
What, then, prevents public access to foodstuffs in our country? A major problem lies in ours being a largely undocumented economy which has failed to ensure fair competition among suppliers to keep prices down. About 93% of Pakistan’s farmers are smallholders who own less than four hectares of land. Most of these farmers lack the funds to cultivate crops and are forced to accept money for the purpose from unscrupulous middlemen who subsequently buy the produce from them at low prices and then sell it at markets at high mark-ups.
The SBP report cites the country’s population growth rate as a threat to food security. It is, therefore, essential for us to take immediate steps to increase our agricultural productivity and curb population growth. A major problem hampering our agricultural output is our per hectare crop yield which lags behind both global and regional competitors. This problem can only be effectively addressed if we emphasise the production of high-quality seeds through a strong partnership between agricultural biotechnology research institutes and private sector seed producing firms.
It is also important that we increase water use efficiency for crop cultivation by improving our irrigation management and irrigation water quality and, in addition to wheat, also consider producing crops such as sorghum and millet which require less water and are more nutritious than wheat. There is also a dire need to expand the amount of land under agricultural production and to encourage farmers to use modern technology to increase crop yields.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2019.