'Food Insecurity in Asia': Pakistan facing chronic food insecurity, says ADB report

Pakistan facing chronic food insecurity due to insufficient agriculture production & political instability, corruption affects food security directly or indirectly. In a study Report on "Food Insecurity in Asia", released by Asian Development Bank, it was pointed out that Pakistan has been able to increase its food production since the 1970s and now exports staple food such as rice. Yet, the country's food security level is still low. This shows that a country's ability to produce food is not a critical reason for a country's food security or insecurity, ADB report added.
In Pakistan, ADB study report mentioned that the lack of purchasing power and access rights to an adequate food supply by many of its poor people is the key reason for the country's low level of food security. To improve its level of food security, achieving stable economic growth and equitable income distribution should be Pakistan's foremost priority; central to this is the need to improve governance and eliminate corruption.
Investment in agricultural infrastructure and R&D also needs to be carried out urgently to improve productivity in agriculture and to better cope with natural disasters. Efforts are needed to reduce and avoid environmental pollution and use resources sustainably. Population control should also be on the agenda of the government and society. In the foreseeable future, Pakistan is most likely to continue to be subject to socio-political, economic, and environmental volatility.
Deep reforms and improvements in governance must be carried out soon to unleash the country's growth potential. Without substantial improvements in governance and a reduction in corruption, decent economic growth is hard to anticipate, and hunger and malnutrition will continue to prevail because of the maldistribution of resources and the lack of purchasing power among the poor.
To improve its food security, ADB report mentioned that Pakistan is facing formidable challenges, in particular, in the area of poor governance, the lack of economic growth, and instability in the country and its borders. Pakistan has to overcome these challenges to achieve durable societal development outcomes, which are fundamental to stable economic growth and future food security.
Environmental pollution and degradation present additional challenges for Pakistan to improve its future food security. Major environment issues include water pollution from raw sewage, industrial waste, and agricultural runoff; rising deforestation; soil erosion; and desertification.
The pressure resulting from population increase has also worsened the environmental and resource problems. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, Pakistan experienced very high population growth (over 3.0 percent per annum). In the early 1990s, the growth rate dropped below 3.0% but was still above 2.5 percent.
Since the early 2000s, despite its further decline, it was still above 1.8 percent. How to coordinate the population growth to match the country's economic and environmental capacity requires attention from the government and the public.
In addition, there has been a shortfall of investment in agriculture infrastructure and research and development (R&D), leading to limited innovation in the agricultural sector. Antiquated farming methods and the inefficient use of resources have contributed to poor productivity.
The slow, or absence of, improvements in agricultural productivity is detrimental to the rural population, especially the rural poor. Two-thirds of the country's population and 80% of the poor live in rural areas. The lack of development in agricultural infrastructure and advancement in farming methods has made agricultural production difficult and inefficient, aggravating poverty in rural areas.
In the mountainous areas, many rural residents still do not have adequate access to food and other essential services, ADB report added. According to ADB study a number of factors are responsible for the low level of food security in Pakistan. Some of the major ones include the high level of poverty incidence, the high level of corruption, and political instability.
Commenting over the poverty incidence, it was mentioned that at the national level, the supply of dietary energy is more than adequate, with the average dietary energy supply adequacy (ADESA) being over 100 percent since the early 1990s. Fat supply is also largely satisfactory. Protein supply is low, although there has been an improvement not far from the required level. This comfortable food supply situation at the national level would imply that there is enough food for people to maintain an active and healthy life.
The fact that there are high levels of wasting, stunted, and underweight children under 5 years of age and that there exists a high prevalence of under-nourishment suggest that some people do not have sufficient economic access to the required amount of food.
The level of poverty is high in Pakistan. In 1998, the poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population) was 30.6 percent. It then climbed to 34.5 percent in 2001 (World Bank 2015), dropping to 22.3 percent in 2005. These percentages of the population living below the poverty line were based on income per adult in Pakistan being $1.25 per day.
Commenting over the political instability, the FAO index of "political stability and absence of violence" measures perceptions of the likelihood that a government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means, including politically motivated violence and terrorism. It provides a measure of political shocks that might have implications for national food security. According to this index, Pakistan is unstable politically, with the index steadily increasing (in absolute value).
Other factors also affect the level of Pakistan's food security to a varying extent, e.g., conflicts in the border areas, militant activities and natural disasters. These are, however, unlikely the determining forces. Other countries with very high levels of food security, such as Israel and the Republic of Korea, have always been subject to similar conditions.