Food security: ‘Locally produced food should be accessible and sold at affordable prices’

HRCP holds a talk by Tahir Hasnain on factors contributing to the possible dearth of food.

KARACHI: Climate change will be the biggest challenge to food security in the country, according to Tahir Hasnain, an expert on environment and livelihood.

“In the coming years, production of food and its quantity will be less,” said the researcher and agriculturist at the office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday evening.

During his talk on food security in the country, he said that the climate change, meaning longer summers and shorter winters, will severely affect the production of crops in the country. “Temperature will increase and rainfall will decrease.”



He said that the accessibility and availability of food is a human right and is mandatory for the government to ensure. “Food that is being produced should be culturally accepted and should be made available at affordable prices.”

Discussing the factors that were contributing to the ongoing food security in Pakistan, he said that being the sixth most populous country in the world, Pakistan requires a lot of food.

Hasnain said that urbanisation was a dangerous trend in the country, as lands around the cities which were once used for cultivation are now being turned in housing projects.

“The concept of kitchen gardens has finished in urban areas and people don’t even grow vegetables in their backyards. People living in the urban areas solely rely on the rural areas for production of food crops.”

Hasnain said that the role of women has also become limited with the advancement in agriculture, new methods and machinery. “There is gender discrimination and women’s role has reduced. Men, who are more business oriented than women, are the major stakeholders.”

The trend of corporate farming - which uses pesticides and chemicals and results in more production of crops in less time - is also alarming. “I request people to always wash the vegetables and fruits after buying them because vendors at markets, especially at Sabzi Mandi, use pesticides to store them.”

He said that even after the harvest, pesticides and chemicals are used on crops to ensure that they are not damaged.

Hasnain raised the issue of politics in food, such as when food is stored but not made available to people.

He also listed export of good products and import of inferior crops as factors contributing to food security.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2013.