A national-level meeting will be held in Islamabad on Wednesday to finalise, at last, the much-awaited policy on national food security.

The draft of the policy sets out a vision to achieve agriculture and food security and help provinces to devise their own strategies.

The government says achieving food security and nutrition for the people of Pakistan is one of its top priorities. The steps it has taken in this regard include concept development of National Zero Hunger Programme, food security assessment survey, its recent commitment for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the goal number 1 (ending poverty in all its forms everywhere) and 2 (ending hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture).

To document all these initiatives and future strategies in light of the SDGs, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research worked out a comprehensive National Food Security Policy, according to Food Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan.

The policy also aims to support small farmers and promote small-scale innovative technologies, value-addition and value chain development in the country.

The ministry, with the help of provincial governments, international research organisations and development partners, will launch initiatives to promote these activities, Mr Bosan said.

The policy, which took more than five years to be finalised, will be presented to the federal cabinet for approval. The previous government led by the PPP issued the draft of the national food security policy in 2013 when its tenure was about to complete.

The PML-N government, which came to power in 2013, then decided to redraft the policy after it found several elements of the policy were not aligned with a changing agriculture environment.

Moreover, dynamics of agriculture in the country have been changed after the devolution of powers to provinces under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. It took years for the provincial agricultural departments to absorb the change when the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Cooperatives and Livestock was abolished.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research was then formed to deal with policy matters, relations with international organisations and implementing agreements at international level.

However, from 2013 to 2017, the ministry took four years to revise the policy amid declining growth of the agricultural sector.

The old draft policy was finally scrapped and a new policy was released only a couple of weeks ago. The previous policy, according to an official of the food ministry, was not even suitable for the country’s agriculture sector.

The revised policy has now been circulated among all stakeholders, and their inputs will be incorporated at the July 12 meeting of all provincial governments, agricultural research institutions at federal and provincial levels, the private sector and international organisations.

The policy seeks to redefine the role of federal and provincial governments after the devolution, and proposes that setting national priority, trade policies, national and trans-boundary pest and disease surveillance, the certification of agricultural products meeting international standards and strategic and basic research on topics of national importance remain areas that the federal government needs to take care of in consultation with the provinces.

Key architect of the policy Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan, who is the director-general of the National Agricultural Research Centre, said the policy will be presented to the federal cabinet for approval after fine-tuning.

Secretary for National Food Security and Research Muhammad Abid Javed hoped implementing the policy will help promote value-added food production while creating a new class of agricultural entrepreneurs. As a result, the availability of diversified food products will increase that will help poor people living in remote areas to access food more easily.

At the same time, Pakistan needs to make its agriculture sector more resilient to climate change risks. It is projected that there will be greater variability in weather with more frequent extreme events such as floods and droughts. Much of the impact of these changes will be on the agriculture sector, which needs mechanisms to cope and adapt.

It is also feared that there will be immense pressure on limited surface as well as ground water resources. These challenges could be managed through adopting soil and water conservation technologies, enhanced use of high efficiency irrigation systems, developing drought-resistant varieties and introducing climate smart agriculture.

The food policy identifies the following issues facing the agriculture sector: climate change, food stability, quality production and trade, safety of food and environment, food utilisation, market support, national zero hunger programme, food accessibility, food losses and wastage, poultry, fisheries, livestock, agricultural mechanisation, land and water resources management, improving credit market, pesticide, fertilisers, seeds, food availability, and diversification for income and nutrition.

The policy also includes the agricultural development zones coming under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The measures that are likely to be taken include preparing feasibility reports of tradable commodities for each sub zone, pilot-testing of rural businesses for the identified commodities, introducing innovations for quality production, post-harvest handling and processing, developing investment portfolios for public-private partnerships to promote rural businesses, modernising production and market infrastructure development for grains and fruit crops, fisheries, livestock and livestock products, and developing business models to promote value-added agriculture all along the CPEC route.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 10th, 2017