Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: National security cannot be guaranteed unless there is food security in Pakistan. Urgent and immediate attention is needed for the reforming and modernizing of the agriculture sector as well as controlling population growth.
These remarks were expressed by prominent speakers at a seminar conducted on ‘Food Security for Pakistan’ arranged by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS) held in Islamabad on Thursday.
Former federal minister for food, security, and research Syed Fakhar Imam, being a keynote speaker on the occasion, said that national security, international security, and food security were all interdependent and interlinked and could not be isolated from each other.
The former minister lamented that of the five major crops, wheat was grown on about 36% of the country land which was where the problem occurred. Sadly, the country had failed to evolve high-yield crop varieties.
Fakhar Imam argued that the five major agri-universities and affiliated colleges across the country were not according to international standards and had outdated curricula. Besides, the population explosion was also a major reason why Pakistan had become an importer of wheat in the recent past.
Dr Zia Ul Haque Shamsi, while his opening remarks, underlined that Pakistan being the fifth largest country in the world, and a predominantly agri-based society, unfortunately, was suffering from serious concerns of food insecurity for different reasons.
Instead of moving for improved farming processes through modern methods and techniques, better seeds development, and resource management, unfortunately, Pakistan still had a long way to go in securing food sufficiency for its alarming population at an affordable cost, he said.
Factors Causing Food Security
Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri highlighted that triple C Crises ‘COVID & Climate Change’ were forcing states across the globe to question and revise their healthcare systems, economic policies, and methods of producing and consuming food, but the country, had tetra-C crises given its ‘Complacency’.
He pointed out that even before the devasting floods in Pakistan and Russia-Ukraine war, Pakistan was ranked 9th on the list of countries that suffered with severe food insecurity issues. He further said the Punjab Food Department released the subsidized wheat to flour mills in April last year, as opposed to its earlier policy of releasing the stocks in September of the same year, which had resulted in the ongoing wheat flour crisis as it permitted the private sector to hoard its reserves.
Dr Suleri warned that future generations of the country faced a heightened risk of malnourishment, wasting, stunting as well as low IQ levels. He urged shifting to accurate agriculture technologies, adopting climate smart agri-practices, integrating social safety nets for farmers, comprising weather index-based insurance, improving Agri-institutional arrangements, offering smart and targeted subsidies, and solarization of tube wells, among others.
While analyzing the magnitude and availability of water for agricultural needs, Ashfaq Mahmood presented an overview of the water resources of Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty and transboundary waters. He further said that the glaciers, snow melting, and rains in the country were major sources of water, adding that the effects of global warming and alarming climate change had made it difficult to secure sustainable water management in Pakistan.
He advised increasing water storage capacity by building a combo of large, medium, and small dams, along with catchment areas, harvesting rainwater, particularly in barani areas, conserving and recycling water, proactively addressing transboundary water issues, timely control of the population, desalinizing sea water, and promoting information dissemination and rationalization of virtual water.
