FOOD INSECURITY:
It is the condition when people don’t have the enough good quality and healthy food which fulfills the all nutrients requirements for the people. I will say that yes there will be food security in Pakistan Inshallah.
REASONS:
There are some reasons which are responsible for food insecurity in Pakistan:
Water Shortage: Water is very important and its importance is that it is critical for growing crops. Earth has experienced water shortages which in turn cause less harvest for farmers. Water shortage will cause less crops to grow because every crop needs water in a specific amount.
Population size: Pakistan’s current population is over 188 million and it make the world’s sixth most-populous country in the world. So a lot more food is currently needed to meet dietary requirements for the population.
Urbanization: The fertile land outside cities available were used earlier for food cultivation but it has been converted into housing sectors. so, rural agriculture sector has got immense pressure to produce and provide food to huge numbers of urban areas.
Cash Crops replacing Food Crops: Poor farmers cannot meet the increased cost of agricultural production and are suffering economic losses but the rich-people opportunist investors have replaced food crops with cash crops such as Cotton , Sugarcane , Kinno, Tobacco, Banana.
Degradation of Ecology: Due to local interventions i.e. chemical use in agriculture sector, deforestation and industrial pollution, and natural disorders i.e. climate change and global warming, the ecosystems of the country have been effected in a negative sense and cultivable land decreasing and weathers are consistently changing that have had an impact on production of the food.
Politics in Food: The food has remained a subject of politics as well. At many instances, much of food remained available in one corner of the country but poor people were allowed to die of hunger at other corner at the same time.
Insecurity in food is linked to prices as well. Many people have simply no access to food because of their low income levels. Pakistan is producing sufficient food, and this year 24.2 million tons of wheat according to research but due to low income level of some people, they cannot afford the food.
Solution
1. Attention towards major crops:
The major cereal crops like wheat, rice, and maize should be of main attention in order to remove food insecurity. I think wheat is important among all because its consumption is very high and it can be available to us in different forms.
Wheat
Benefits and uses of wheat:
• High protein content than any other crop.
• Wheat is one of the major crops in Pakistan and special Measures should be taken to grow this crop, take some steps to ensure water, better seeds, fertilizers.
• Raw wheat can be used as flour.
• Wheat is a major ingredient in such foods as bread, biscuits, pancakes, pastries, cakes, cookies, muffins, rolls.
• Third most produced cereal
• The researchers must introduce some high yielding varieties (heat and cold resistant) for food security for its greater production.
Availability and consumption of wheat
The per capita availability of wheat in 1998-99 had been 140.87 kg/annum compared to a per capita consumption of wheat of 124.44 kg/annum in 1993-94. Per capita wheat consumption is higher in rural areas (132.48 kg/annum) compared to urban areas (103.92 kg/annum). These figures clearly demonstrate that wheat production in Pakistan was greater than required. Unfortunately, wheat has been imported yearly (except during 2000) to fulfill demand.
The province of Punjab contributes a large share of the area of wheat in Pakistan, increasing from 72.10 to 73.03 % between the 1998 and 1999 growing seasons. This increase is due to an enhanced support price for wheat, early harvest of the cotton crop, and replacement of sugarcane and other competitive crops. According to final estimates, Production increases due to favorable weather condition at dough and maturity stages, increase use of fertilizer and herbicides, and farmer awareness of new production technology. Now a days its consumption is lot more than previous years.
Wheat yield and food security
Average wheat yield in Pakistan has been stopped for the last seven years but the population has increased significantly, increasing the gap between demand and supply of basic staple food. In Punjab, wheat occupies the largest cultivated area during Rabi season . National wheat production is greater than any of the three other provinces. But wheat statistics reveals no increase in yield for the last seven years.
In 1999-00, the province produced 16.48 million tons of wheat at a per hectare average of 2,667 kg. The production dropped to 15.41 million tons next year-2000-01. Average per hectare yield was 2,465kg. There was 6.5 per cent reduction in wheat production and eight per cent in average per hectare yield.
The production dipped further in year 2001-02 to 14.59 million tons with average going down to 2,392 kg per hectare. Average per hectare yield decline was 10 and three per cent compared to 1999-00 and 2000 . In 2005-06, the production recovered a bit and hit 16.81 million tons at an average of 2659 kg per hectare- some eight kg less than what the province produced in year 1999-00.
Since population has increased by at least 2.5 per annum, from 137 million to 160 million between 1999-00 and 2005-06. To meet rising demand, wheat production must also increase proportionally.
Production in 2015: Population of Pakistan currently is 18 crores. There is increase in production and that increase in production is due to on time planting, greater availability and use of irrigation water, improved quantity and quality of inputs and favorable weather conditions. Production is adjusted upwards to 25.5 million metric tons, in accordance with latest government of Pakistan figures. The Government of Pakistan has decided to buy 6.6 million metric tons of wheat from next harvest. There should be much increase in production if we follow the below mentioned solutions:
1. Fertilizers:
A crop needs proper organic and inorganic fertilizers and these fertilizers also increase the fertility of soil and play a big role in achieving productivity. If fertilizers are available to farmers at bearing rate it will decrease its cost of production and their will be increase in farm productivity and increase in farm productivity is our main objective in order to remove food insecurity.
2. Pesticides:
Pesticides are the chemicals and these are used to control pests. It helps both of them, plants and farmer. Save farmers economically and save plants from their life point of view. If pesticides are available to farmers at low rate it will help in increasing the productivity of agriculture sector.
3. Research:
The problem with our agriculture is lack of creativity in research. During the last few decades, the researchers have not come up with any high-yielding seed and the growers are sowing the variety introduced in the early nineties. There is a need for wheat research programme. The scientists should make efforts for the genetic improvement and development of new varieties. Better genotypes should be made available to growers
4: Economic Access to Food:
As much as a country is poor, definitely problem of food security will persistently occur definitely. There should be much money for wheat production given by government so that people can have food every time and safe food will be distributed to every individual whether rich or poor.
5: Targeting Poor People:
The point is that who are the poor? And how one can identify? Target poor people and income support programmes like Benazir programme should carefully monitored to reach the real at a minimum transaction cost.
6: Composition of Farms and Farmers:
Small farmers mean a person who has a land less than 2 hectares. Small farmers are generally poor and all their family members are engaged with agriculture and they use most of crops by self consumption. When government announces policies for the improvement of agriculture sector, it mostly gives incentive to big landlords. It can be said that that the rate of cultivated area is high in small farm size and if government adopts small farmer’s incentive policy, it helps in removing food insecurity and can make food secure for everyone.
7. Input and Output Prices:
By stabilizing input and output prices, government also controls many problems. If a farmer receives high input price, its cost of production will increase and definitely he demanded high price of his commodity.
8. Food Insecurity and Environmental Issues:
Due to environmental changes, the problem of food insecurity occurs. A farmer does hard work for better output of crop but environmental factor is not under his control. If the environment is farmer friendly, he/she reaps good harvest. Some environmental issues are discussed below:
Environmental changes also affect the productivity of agriculture crops. Pakistan is facing the problem of shortage of irrigated water now days. Pakistan is also hit by a severe energy crisis and due to this crises the whole economy of Pakistan is stagnant, increase in oil prices in the past some months, increase in electricity prices and its load shading is creating a severe situation for Pakistan in every sector. Due to increase in energy prices, fertilisers prices etc. farmer’s cost of production of crops increases as a result food items prices increase in Pakistan. Government should look at the prices and make them down.