01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

Availability of basic foodstuff is of vital importance. It has become a concern for governments of poor countries, especially, those under population pressure. "Food security exists when all people, at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." World Food Summit (FAO, 1996).

In Pakistan, food security remains an unfulfilled dream for the currently about 42 million people. The fact that about one third of the population does not have access to food needed for adequate nutrition is manifested by the incidence of malnutrition.

Among the 174 nations covered by the latest survey using the criteria of Human Development Index (HDI), Pakistan was ranked 135th. Access to food is mainly related to poverty, and for four decades Pakistan has been trying to reduce poverty. The proportion of people below the poverty line fell from 52 per cent in 1970-71 to 17 per cent in 1987-88. However, since early 1990's poverty is on rise. Recent estimates showed that 50 per cent of the population falls below the poverty line.

Food poverty (caloric based) incidence showed that about one-third of the households are living below the food poverty line (the people consuming calories below the recommended level) and they are not meeting their nutritional requirements. The incidence of food poverty is higher in rural areas (35 per cent), than in urban areas (26 per cent).

Estimates show that in Pakistan per capita calories intake has improved from 1,940kg calories per day in 1960 to 2,457kg in 2001. Although, the per capita availability has significantly increased over time, but the problem lies in the non-equity of food and income distribution, which caused increase in poverty within each group and even within the members of the household. The inequality in income distribution resulting in chronic and persistent hunger is the single biggest scourge of Pakistan today.

The physical expression of this continuously re-enacted tragedy is the condition of under-nutrition, which manifests itself among large section of the poor, particularly among women and children.

It is said that Pakistan has achieved self-sufficiency in the matter of food grains (which is still a dream) but what exactly one means when one says this. It loosely refers to the fact that Pakistan is no longer required to import food grains. It certainly can legitimately take pride in being able to manage the existing demand for food grains with indigenous production.

But what about the suppressed demand, the demand that should have been there but it is absent due to poverty? Effective demand and consequent consumption of required quantity of food grains is not what it should be; otherwise millions would not have been below the poverty line, not being able to consume at least minimum levels of calories.

This lack of access or lack of purchasing power has been forcefully brought out by Amartya Sen when he described it as deprivation due to non-entitlement or "the inability of certain people to command food through the legal means available in the society, including the use of production possibilities, trade opportunities, entitlement vis-à-vis the State and other methods of acquiring food". He goes on to say that a "person starves either because he does not have the ability to command enough food or because he does not use this ability to avoid starvation."

Policy thrust:

1. There is a need to review the current state of the art with respect to research and development activities that affect food systems in Pakistan.

2. In the context of access to food, it would be important to identify the food insecure people, which are financially poor and are unable to acquire sufficient food, even if the overall supply of food in the country is sufficient.

3. Reorganize and reactivate the public and private sectors to support the farmer by purchasing their crops, provide storage facilities, proper post-harvest handlings, more investment and information about proper application of physical inputs for improving income level for easy access to food.

4. Diversification of on-farm and off-farm income generation activities i.e., encouraging small enterprises, rural poultry, dairy farming, women involvement in household decisions and income generations, etc.

5. The WTO should state publicly that the achievement of the 2015 poverty reduction target is an explicit objective of its work. Under the WTO developing countries must be exempted from minimum market access obligations for food/agricultural products, especially regarding basic food items. The AoA should adopt the World Food Summit target of halving world hunger by the same date.