Agriculture and Food Security in Pakistan

THEMATIC PAPER

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY IN PAKISTAN

By: MAZHAR ARIF

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Hunger is exclusion – exclusion from the land, from income, jobs, wages, life and citizenship. When a person gets to the point of not having anything to eat, it is because all the rest has been denied. This is a modern form of exile. It is death in life… Josue de Castro

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C O N T E N T S

1 - Introduction 1.1 What is food security? 1.2 Official definition 1.3 Why food insecurity? 1.4 Right to food 1.5 Components of food security 2 - Agriculture and Food Security 2.1 Agriculture in Pakistan 2.2 Rural people remain poor 2.3 Who are the Rural Poor? 2.4 Agricultural growth is not enough 3– Food Poverty 4 - Food insecurity in rural Pakistan 5 – Strategic options 6 – Supporting requirements 7 - References

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1 - Introduction Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved the export of an additional 500,000 tons of wheat this year in the hope of making inroads into the lucrative Indian market. The export will be undertaken by the private sector by sea and by railways. A bumper harvest of 23 million tons is expected this 2006-07 crop year. Last year, the country also had a bumper crop of 21.7 million tons of wheat. (1) The surplus harvest of wheat, however, does not guarantee food security in the country. One citizen of Pakistan, Mr. Maqbool, comments that first we will export, and then we will import ‘Pakistani wheat’ at much higher rates during the time of crises from these neighbouring countries. Another informed citizen, Salman Ali, says there have been serious irregularities in the past in wheat export and then import. The traders mafia (that includes ministers, influential parliamentarians and the private traders plus few industrialists) in our country is very strong and the common consumer suffers the net impact of such malpractices. Government takes decisions in the name of consumers but in actual effect, these are the traders who

References: 1- Daily Times, Lahore, May 4, 2007 2- Food Security in the Global Age: South Asian Dilemma, 2001, SAWTEE, Pro-Public and CI-ROAP, Kathmandu 3- International Campaign on the Right to Food, Actionaid International, Campaign Strategy, 2007-2011 4- Global hunger and food security after the World Food Summit, ODI Briefing Paper, 1997 (1), London: Overseas Development Institue 5- Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action, 13-17 November, 1996, Rome 6- Article, Business Recorder, Karachi, October 16, 2004 7- Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan 2003, World Food Program (WFP) Pakistan, SDPI, Islamabad 8- United Nations Statement on Food Security in Pakistan 2000, United Nations System in Pakistan, Islamabad 9- Mazhar Arif, Land, peasants and Poverty: Equitable Land Reforms in Pakistan, 2004, The Network Publications, Islamabad 10- United Nations Statement on Food Security in Pakistan 2000, United Nations System in Pakistan, Islamabad 11- National Coordinated Wheat Programme, Briefing Paper, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Islamabad 12- World Bank, Rural Poverty Report on Pakistan, April 2007 13- Ibid 14- Ibid 15- United Nations Statement on Food Security in Pakistan 2000, United Nations System in Pakistan, Islamabad 16- Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan 2003, World Food Program (WFP) Pakistan, SDPI, Islamabad 17- Ibid 18- Ibid 19- World Bank, Rural Poverty Report on Pakistan, April 2007 20- United Nations Statement on Food Security in Pakistan 2000, United Nations System in Pakistan, Islamabad Page 25 of 26 Food Democracy vs Food Dictatorship In any case, amaranth is not the only source of protein in India’s rich bio-diversity and cuisine. Our “dals,” pulses, and legumes that are a staple with rice as “dalchawal” and with wheat as “dal-roti” are rich in protein. The consumption of “dals” and pulses provides much higher levels of proteins than genetically engineered potatoes can. Pulses are also necessary for sustainable agriculture, since they are nitrogen-fixing crops and provide an ecological alternative to chemical nitrogenous fertilizers. Pulses have been made expensive by being made scarce through the spread of green revolution mono-cultures of wheat and rice. In (Indian) Punjab alone, the area under pulses went down from 13.38 per cent to 3.48 per cent during 1966-67 to 1985-86. Traditional agriculture was based on mixtures of cereals and pulses. New initiatives like Navdanya are rejuvenating mixed cropping with pulses to increase both nutritional security and ecological security. GM foods are intrinsically linked to food dictatorship. The first level of control comes from the fact that a handful of gene giants—Monsanto, Syngenta, Aventis, Dow, Dupont—control agricultural biotechnology. The second level of control comes from intellectual property and patent monopolies over GM seeds and plants. The third level of control is created by stifling freedom of information and choice. GM crops are only spreading where farmers are denied freedom of information and freedom of choice because of corporate control and dependency. GM foods are entering the food chain where consumers are denied the right to know and the right to choose. U.S. farmers are the most trapped under corporate control of inputs and marketing. U.S. citizens have been denied food freedom and food democracy by corporations preventing labeling of GM foods. Vandana Shiva Page 26 of 26