PAKISTAN’S nutrition problem is usually blamed on poverty, poor eating habits or lack of awareness. But according to the FAO, the country simply does not produce enough of many foods people need for a healthy diet. Vegetables, fruits, pulses, roots and tubers remain in short supply, while staples and sugar are produced in greater quantities than a healthy diet requires. This means families are being asked to eat better in a system that often makes the healthier choice harder to find and more expensive. For decades, agricultural policy has focused heavily on major crops and food security in terms of calories. Much less attention has been paid to whether people are getting a balanced diet. That imbalance now shows clearly. More than 60pc of Pakistanis cannot afford a healthy diet, while undernutrition and diet-related diseases continue to exist side by side. Public awareness matters, but advice alone cannot solve a problem shaped by what the country grows and what people can afford to buy.

The solution must therefore begin well before food reaches the dinner table. Farmers need stronger incentives to grow more vegetables, fruits and pulses. Better storage, cold chains and markets are also needed for fresh food to reach consumers. School meal programmes and social protection schemes can help poorer families buy nutritious food, while also creating steady demand for healthier produce. Clear food labels, tighter rules on the marketing of unhealthy food to children, and lower levels of salt, sugar and unhealthy fats in processed products would also help. But these measures will have limited impact if nutritious food remains scarce or too expensive. Pakistan cannot simply tell people to make healthier choices while the food system makes those choices difficult. A successful food policy should focus less on whether enough calories are produced and more on whether ordinary families can afford and regularly buy the food needed for a healthy life.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2026