Food security experts and small farmers from across the country have demanded that the government ensure food supply to the most vulnerable. DESIGN: SAMRA AAMIR/ FAIZAN DAWOOD
Food security experts and small farmers from across the country have demanded that the government ensure food supply to the most vulnerable.
They were speaking on Monday at a national debate on the draft “National Food & Nutritional Policy”, which has been developed by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. The debate was organised by Oxfam Pakistan and Action Aid.
Government representatives, civil society members, small farmers and other stakeholders participated in the debate.
Zareen Gul, a female farmer from Layyah district in southern Punjab, talked about the plight of small farmers in her area, saying that her children now eat only two meals a day as her family was facing food insecurity.
“I mix lemon juice with water and add spices. We cannot even cook a proper curry at home. Very occasionally, they get to eat a chappati” said Gul.
According to a statement issued by the Oxfam, in Pakistan equitable food distribution faces severe hurdles because of climate change and is further constrained by scarcity of land and water. “The draft prepared by the ministry on food security is filled with gaps which need to be sorted out.”
It said that issues related to land, water shortages, floods, industrial waste disposal by factories, land grabbing and hindrances caused by middle men, lack of seeds and poor communication linkages with markets were some of the dire issues which were needed to be addressed to ensure food supply to the vulnerable.
During the debate, speakers asked the government to initiate farmer-led initiatives. It was recommended that the new policy should speak about inflation and food price volatility, address issues of land grabbing and land degradation and effects of climate change should also be integrated in the policy.
According to a report, with 70 per cent of the population living in rural areas, almost 24 to 40 per cent of people live below the poverty line in Pakistan.
Shaman Ali from Sanghar district, Sindh said that waste disposal by factories were affecting the quality of food. “I’m sorry to say that the fruits and vegetables that people are eating today are fed with infected water. It is poisonous and no one is doing anything about it.”
Oxfam Country Director Arif Jabbar Khan said that according to a national nutrition survey, 31 million people in Pakistan were malnourished. “We need appropriate policies to ensure access, availability and utilisation of nutritious food for the poor and policies should be implemented in their true spirit.”
According to “food legislation in South Asia and its link with food security,” a research paper by Oxfam and SDPI, the government of Pakistan has taken different steps from time to time to ensure food security for its citizens. However, food insecurity was becoming an emerging challenge for the country due to food inflation, despite ample food crops production in the country.
National Food Security and Research Secretary Seerat Asghar said that policies were there but the capacity building at provincial levels remained a major bottleneck for their implementation.
“We all need to collectively realise that development of Pakistan mainly depends on agriculture and we need to work on it,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2013.
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In Pakistan, policies have a disconnect with the ground realities. The policy makers are non-professionals having no education and experience on the subject/area for which they are supposed to plan. It is amazing that the country's planners has yet to decide that which food crops should be grown on how much area to meet self-sufficiency and which food commodities should be exported or imported. It is pity that we have scale neutral crop production technologies for small, medium and large growers and we are going to ensure food security for the people of Pakistan. Water availability for crops is decreasing every year and we have no plan to replace certain area under rice crop to any other food/cash crop with one-fourth water requirement. We are exporting billions tons of precious water in the form of rice.
The countries having sensible governments formulate food security policy on the basis of their capacity to produce food crops on internationally competitive rates. Moreover, their food security policy is well connected to agricultural policy which itself has strong relation with integrated crop management policy which mainly includes integrated nutrient, pest and water management policies. They never formulate fertilizer policy (like Pakistan) prior to integrated nutrient management policy. Our polices are only great wishes and we have no implementable strategies. May Allah have a mercy upon Pakistan.