Hunger pains: Pakistan's food insecurity

WASHINGTON - Woodrow Wilson Center in collaboration with the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan held a conference to illustrate the magnitude and manifestations of Pakistans food insecurity to identify its possible causes and to consider ways forward, says a press release.
Those who spoke on the occasion include Zafar Altaf, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Islamabad); Sohail Jehangir Malik, Innovative Development Strategies (Islamabad); Saadia Toor, College of Staten Island, City University of New York; Roshan Malik, Iowa State University; Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (Islamabad); Kenneth Iain MacDonald, University of Toronto; Allan Jury, World Food Programme and Gautam Hazarika, University of Texas at Brownsville.
In recent weeks, Pakistans military has been waging a full-scale campaign against the Taliban. This operation has displaced several million people and is threatening their access to food. This developing humanitarian crisis is exacerbating Pakistans already-widespread food insecurity. According to 2008 data from the World Food Programme, 77 million Pakistanis - nearly half the countrys total population - are food insecure, while 95 of Pakistans 121 districts face problems such as hunger and malnutrition-related disease. Last year, a UNICEF report concluded that half of all child deaths in Pakistan can be attributed to poor nutrition.
In the conferences opening address, Zafar Altaf of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council pointed out the key obstacles to improving Pakistans food security, including a disproportionate emphasis on wheat, inefficiencies of fertilizer and irrigation systems, poor infrastructure in the western provinces, and a lack of innovative knowledge generation. He emphasised the importance of improving both socio-economic conditions and the quality of research institutions. Such improvements are needed in order to break the cycle of sub-optimal policies and to produce imaginative solutions. In Altafs view, the single most beneficial initiative toward strengthening food security in Pakistan would be to bring Balochistans currently uncultivable - but abundantly available - land into use.
Hunger, according to Abid Qaiyum Suleri of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute poses more of a security than a humanitarian threat to Pakistan. Suleri, the conferences luncheon speaker, asserted that steady increases in the number of food-insecure individuals have led to class conflict (between haves and have-nots) and violence that ultimately weaken the state. The high prevalence of food insecurity has intensified extraordinary behavior, giving rise to suicides, suicide attacks, and the selling of children, and hastening the loss of dignity. To address this crisis, Suleri proposed a paradigm shift in public spending that moves away from national defense and toward social development, and that benefits the individual, not the state. Suleri called on the international community to step up activities that improve Pakistans distribution of food to those in need, that increase food absorption capacities in camps for the internally displaced, and that expand the reach of humanitarian operations already under way. Its not the atomic bomb, Suleri declared, but the courage of the individual [that is] needed for social change.
The morning panel examined macro-level challenges of Pakistans food security, Sohail Jehangir Malik, of Innovative Development Strategies, spoke about agricultural production, with an emphasis on wheat. He argued that Pakistans food security is tied to the production and availability of this staple, which accounts for more than 55 percent of the countrys total caloric consumption. In Pakistan, the availability of, and access to, wheat is a story of regional disparities. For example, the volatile Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) suffers from huge shortfalls in wheat, while the fertile Punjab enjoys a surplus. Malik contended that wheat millers benefit disproportionately from Federal subsidies and advocated for a middle ground between protecting consumers and subsidizing producers.
Saadia Toor, of the College of Staten Island, declared that Pakistans food insecurity is not just the result of poor agricultural production, but also a byproduct of structural factors such as unequal land distribution. Land, she asserted, is Pakistans single-most important asset-yet millions of Pakistanis are landless. Broad-based-and not simply cosmetic-land reform is essential for strengthening food security and reducing poverty, because improved land access reduces food prices for families. She advocated for empowering people - particularly peasants - movements.
Roshan Malik of Iowa State University addressed the linkages between governance and food security in Pakistan. Article 38 of Pakistans constitution stipulates that the state shall provide basic necessities such as food. A big part of the problem has been the countrys worsening violence. His review indicated that all seven agencies of the unstable Federally Administered Tribal Areas were found to be extremely food insecure, while the districts in the NWFP and Balochistan deemed food insecure had alarming amounts of violence. Malik concluded that because of the countrys violent environment, Pakistanis at times must literally harvest crops under the gun.
The afternoon panel looked at the human side of food security in Pakistan. The University of Torontos Kenneth Iain MacDonald focused on subsistence agricultural systems in Pakistans Northern Areas, amidst the harsh terrain and demanding climate of some of the highest mountains in the world.
The World Food Programmes Allan Jury recounted his organisations experiences in combating hunger vulnerability in Pakistan. Hunger is the curse that keeps on giving, Jury posited; hungry people stop investing in education and health care, which adversely impacts their economic situation and leads to yet more hunger. Food security must be handled through a lifecycle approach, emphasizing bottom-up rather than top-down solutions. The World Food Programme, for instance, has had considerable success in providing food at schools and offering take-home rations, in some cases only for girls. This serves to encourage low-income families to send their female children to school. Food insecurity and poor governance are inextricably linked, Jury insisted. Pakistan will never be food secure until it provides its citizenry with good governance.
Food security must be distinguished from nutrition security, stated Gautam Hazarika of the University of Texas at Brownsville. Hazarika looked at various explanations for what he termed the South Asian enigma-the fact that 41 percent of South Asian children under the age of five are malnourished, whereas the comparable figure for sub-Saharan Africa is 27 percent, even though South Asia is at least as economically developed as sub-Saharan Africa. Hazarika concluded that a main factor in the high incidence of child malnutrition in South Asia is the low status of South Asian women. Broaden womens bargaining power within the family and within society generally, Hazarika argued, and one will begin to combat child malnutrition.