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Page added on October 31, 2013
Pakistan food security: Increase production, not population
Linking food security with peace and war-free world, agriculture scientists and experts here on Wednesday stressed the need for taking immediate measures to cater to increasing demand for food, keeping in view the fast growing population.
They were speaking at a function organised to mark the World Food Day, celebrations of which were delayed due to Eid holidays on October 16. This year, the theme of the day was ‘Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition’.
“Serious food shocks lie ahead that will cause great hardships worldwide, leading to government failures, mass migration by tens of millions out of hard- hit regions and possibly even conflicts,” Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan warned while quoting Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sources. The federal minister said that according to projections, by 2050 there would be need to feed about 9.5 billion people, meaning that we have to feed an additional 2.5 billion people, with less water, arable land and an unstable climate. He said Asia will be facing critical water scarcity as early as the 2020s and certainly by 2030 while much water that could be used to grow food is now being taken away by cities, the energy sector and other users. On the other hand, he added, increasing population posed a great challenge so immediate formation of policies was needed to cope challenges.
“There is need to strengthen national and international solidarity in the fight to end huge, malnutrition and poverty as today approximately one billion people are undernourished, one billion are malnourished while another billion are overfed or obese,” he remarked. He stressed the need for enhancing spending on agriculture and food research and dissemination of new knowledge and technologies to farmers to help boost agriculture produce.
Bosan said that National Food and Agriculture Policy would be finalized in December to ensure hunger-free Pakistan and physical and economic access to nutritious food to all. The minister said that in the changing scenario, food security and nutrition was not related to Ministry of National Food Security and Research, rather coordinated efforts of Ministry of Health, Family Planning Divisions, Environment Ministry and energy was vital to ensure healthy food security.
Later talking to media persons, the minister said the government would also devise a flood strategy to help farmers plan their crop cultivation to minimize damages caused due to floods. He said that federal government was engaged in consultations with provinces on the support price issue and decision to this effect would be taken after consultations.
Speaking on the occasion, Food Research Secretary Seerat Asghar stressed the need for accelerating the pace of agriculture development to reduce poverty in rural areas to help overall development of the country. He said that the Ministry was fanalizing the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy for the country in consultation with the provincial governments which would lead to establishment of Food and Nutrition Security council at national, provincial and district levels. The policy would ensure that people of Pakistan have physical and economic access to enough nutritious food.
In his welcome address, Pakistan Research Council Chairman Dr Iftikhar Ahmad said that there is a dire need that a resilient and strong food system is developed to cater to future needs of the country. He said that Pakistan has third major fastest growing population while India’s population would more than double by 2030, so there is a need to have some out of the box solutions.
4 Comments on "Pakistan food security: Increase production, not population"
dsula on Thu, 31st Oct 2013 12:44 pm
Damn rabbits.
bobinget on Thu, 31st Oct 2013 3:19 pm
Pakistan could grow more food if they only had oil and water. Maybe that should read water and oil.
As it happens, Pakistan has insufficient supplies of both. While poor people can still make babies they can not increase food supplies under current conditions.
Politicians can make speeches but that won’t grow peaches.
Pakistanis can’t even get an even break from weather gods. Devastating floods one year drought the next.
The chilling facts are when humans, especially poorly educated, over populated humans face starvation, in early stages of hunger and hopelessness they look around for some other humans to blame for their conditions.
In nuclear armed Pakistan, such a population is a world problem. In the good old days of crop surplus, cheap oil, ‘wealthy’ nations sent aid. Those days are over.
It doesn’t matter if we blame overpopulation, peaked oil, global warming, religious differences, political corruption or all of the above. The fact is people cannot grow crops enough to feed billions w/o predictable weather patterns, and oil for machinery.
Arthur on Thu, 31st Oct 2013 3:29 pm
Where is the one child policy, like in China? Let me guess, the imams are against it?
Ghung on Thu, 31st Oct 2013 4:12 pm
Yet another discussion of attempts at managing collapse in a failed State….
… “so there is a need to have some out of the box solutions.” Seems we’re seeing more and more of this sort of thing; coming soon to a society near you, if you aren’t there already. But, as Kunstler mentioned, people aren’t in control; events are. Thus has it always been, but the age of ignoring consequences is quickly coming to a close. Hopefully these societies that have been desperately trying to cope with collapse can teach the rest of us something, but I doubt it. This can never happen to us,, right?