The sad demise of scores of children in the Tharparker region of Sindh due to hunger, besides the presence of many more who are under-nourished, serves as a wakeup call for policymakers to chart out a comprehensive food security action plan.

Furthermore, widespread poverty in every nook and corner of the country necessitates undertaking such a plan of action in a systematic manner.

The recent National Food Security Policy — prepared by the Ministry of Food Security and Research in consultation with all provinces and other key stakeholders, and which is expected to be presented to the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet for approval in a couple of weeks — is a well directed move.

At present, there are a number of challenges with regards to food security. The overall performance of the agriculture sector has not been impressive since 2005-06. Average agricultural growth was 2.5 per cent during the period from 2006-07 to 2011-12. Needless to say, it is an important contributor to real GDP and provides employment to a large segment of the population.

A major challenge in ensuring food security is providing surface water for irrigating crops. The persistent decline in surface water availability is posing serious challenges in enhancing crop yield and reducing food insecurity for the rising population.

Actual surface water availability reduced from 103.5 million acre feet in 2003-04 to 89.8 million acre feet in 2011-12. It is important to mention that farmers could obtain optimum yield of major and minor crops only under a balanced supply of inputs such as seed, fertiliser, irrigation water etc.

As a result of reduced supply of surface water, cultivated area under major crops has been falling. For example, cultivated area under cotton crop was 3,054 thousand hectares in 2007-08, but was reduced to 2,689 thousand hectares in 2010-11. Likewise, cultivated area under sugarcane went down from 1,241 thousand hectares in 2007-08 to 988 thousand hectares in 2010-11.

More importantly, cultivated area under staple food crops such as rice and wheat has also been on a decline recently. Rice crop was cultivated on an area of 2,963 thousand hectares in 2008-09, but it dropped to 2,365 thousand hectares in 2010-11. Similarly, cultivated area of wheat crop dropped from 9,132 thousand hectares in 2009-10 to 8,666 thousand hectares in 2011-12.

Moreover, the shortage of electricity is posing a different kind of challenge for the agricultural community. And farmers are unable to draw adequate underground water for irrigating crops in the presence of frequent load shedding.

Another challenge is ensuring optimum supply of fertiliser to the farming community, and that too at the right time and price. But domestic fertiliser production reduced from 3,082 thousand nutrient tonnes in 2009-10 to 2,255 thousand nutrient tonnes in 2011-12. In similar fashion, the off-take of fertiliser declined from 4,360 thousand nutrient tonnes in 2009-10 to 2,913 thousand nutrient tonnes in 2011-12.

Thus concrete steps are needed to enhance domestic production of this vital input in order to provide it in balanced amounts of fertiliser and at affordable prices to crop growers.

Fertilisers constitute the most expensive input in crop management. Therefore, its balanced and efficient use is important for good crop growth and development, and to arrest the cost of crop production. It is said that balanced use of fertilisers could boost crop yield significantly.

Another important area that requires policymakers’ immediate attention is research and development in the agriculture sector. Development of new crop varieties with more yield potential is needed to cope with yield losses. Repeated use of seed of previously grown crops loses yield potential over time.

Overall crop production could be enhanced either by increasing the cultivated area or by boosting per acre yield of crops, or by both. As the cultivated area has been reducing rather than increasing, and also as per unit area crop yield is not impressive, the issue of food security should be taken up seriously.