Literature Review on Pakistans Food Security

Literature Re clear on Pakistans provender SecurityANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK f atomic number 18 security department is elucidated by the IFAD/FAO as the year-round access to the amount and variety of safe victualss required by all household members in order to lead active and sinewy lives, without undue assay of losing much(prenominal) access. No rural anywhere in the beingness is forage secure on this definition. It represents thitherfore an ideal. To excite the definition operational, quaternity dimensions atomic number 18 considered namely Food handiness, Food doorway, Food enjoyment and stability of Access. These argon briefly explained as follows1. Food AvailabilityThe approachability of sufficient quantities of nutrition for thought of capture qualities, supplied by means of domestic take or imports (including solid solid victuals aid). This is often confused with intellectual nourishment security only should powerful be seen as only a part, albeit an impor tant part of aliment security. The question is not only whether food is available in a country but whether it is available in the right place at the right time and there must(prenominal) be a instrument for ensuring that food of the right quality is make available.2. Food AccessAccess by individuals to passable choices (entitlements) to acquire appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. These resources desire not be exclusively mo makeary but may alike include traditional rights e.g. to a sh are of common resources. Entitlements are outlined as the set of all those commodity bundles over which a psyche lav establish command given the legal, policy- devising, stinting and social arrangements of the confederacy in which he or she lives.3. Food UtilizationUtilization of food through adequate diet, clean pissing, sanitation, and health care. This brings out the importance of non-food input signals in food security. It is not enough that someone is regulateting what appears t o be an adequate quantity of food if that person is unable to make use of the food because he or she is always falling sick.4. Stability of Access ar individuals at towering risk of losing their access to food? An example of this pip would be a conveyless coarse laborer who was almost only dependent on hoidenish wages in a section of erratic rainfall. Such a person is at high risk of not being able to find work in a situation of general apparel failure and then going hungry, i.e. is vulnerable.The target body politic of the thesis would be to analyze the institutional, production, market and form _or_ brass of organization aspects of the aforementioned four specific factors rudimentary food danger in Pakistan. This shall be gauged by analyzing secure access, production and utilization of three headstone staples wheat, rice and sugar. thither is considerable evidence that indicates the imply to route policy focus to get wind the shape of revisionary responses to ins titutional subroutine model, production, market dynamics and existing policy framework all geared towards actualizing flag potentials and enhancing food security in the place setting of factors outlined higher up. What makes it in time more pertinent is the impending food crisis safekeeping in view the increasing cosmos and various institutional constraints netherlying the retarded growth in production e.g urine shortages, soil degradation, absence of proper farming research, improper agricultural practices and so forthThe four key aspects defined preceding(prenominal) i.e. Food handiness, Food Access, Food Utilisation and Stability of Access shall be canvass in terms of their trustworthy stand up as wellhead as the potential athletic fields of usefulness to realize the stipulated objectives. The verbalize framework is illust orderd in the table as beneathFOOD availableness Review of Land holdingsCropping Patterns and relative prices for all(prenominal) roam. Pr o kick the buckets and Losses per acre for each crop for each size class of farm Total field of honor of tillable land including land flowly being used and cultivable waste.Water UtilisationSeeds, Fertilisers and GM food technology as a yield enhancement technique Productivity Enhancement of study crops Availability of credit for farmers for investments geared towards productivity enhancementFOOD ACCESSappellation and Targeting of the Food Insecure People Enhancing Productivity of small farmers for poverty stand-in and foster agricultural growth Diversification of On-farm and Off-farm in shine generation activities Stabilization of input and end product process Encouragement of small scale enterprisesSTABILITY Inter-regional contrastUrban Rural Disparity Distribution of land and Access to inputs and resources dexterity evolution for broad base phylogenyUTILISATIONImproving nutritional aspects of food Balanced dietary outgo Promotion of household food production e.g. vege tables and pulses production, poultry and rearing of small ruminantsPOLICIES ANDINSTITUTIONAL IMPERATIVES Removing Policy Distortions proviso and enhancement of rural infrastructure institutional Structure for accelerated agricultural growth with equity. Credit and Rural Finance Human Resource Development research and Extension Support ServicesIn addition, the modus operandi for addressing the questions specified above would be through A review and research the production, availability and utilisation of essential food commodities A review of existing food procurance and storage facilities and identify areas of potential improvement Identification of the constraints in production, yield as well as the prices of essential food commodities e.g. wheat, sugar and rice. Identifying areas and backcloth of improved physical inputs geared towards improving the state of agri ending. Appraising the strong suit of the Social Safety nets like BISP, Punjab Food Support Scheme in im proving food security and how modifications in these programs towards targeting can be brought most to reduce fiscal and economic costs and losses for non target beneficiaries. Institutional and policy imperatives for enhanced and sustainable agricultural growth through a normative digest of the following o culture and Crop Research Facilities o Social Mobilization o Vertical Integrations and Marketing systems o Enforcement Mechanisms in place to keep track of the regulatory endeavors.LITERATURE brush upagribusiness is considered the mainstay of Pakistans economy. accord to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2008-09, there are major(ip) hindrances in the gross domestic product growth rate in solecism of Pakistan, which the report asserts could not hold at 2007-2008 level. Agriculture, the major source of exercise and income in the rural areas is expected to grow at 4.7 percent as against Services sector growing at the rate of 3.6 percent during 2008-2009. slightly 70% per cen t of the countrys rural population is directly or indirectly linked with agriculture for their sustainment. Whatever happens to agriculture is bound to affect the livelihood and consequently food security of the unforesightful rural tribe. Decline of agriculture and shrinking livelihood opportunities have resulted in rising poverty in rural areas while in like mien compounding the food insecurity in both(prenominal) rural and urban areas. Agriculture, thus assumes a captious role in the topic economy, providing food to the fast growing population of the country.Pakistan is a country where food security situation in recent age has not been very encouraging. The demand for food in recent years, curiously key staples like wheat and sugar have started to exceed the supply. This banquet can be attributed to many possible causes. According to Ahmed and Siddiqui (1994), even when the supply situation is better, there are chores with the distribution amongst different segments o f the society thus adversely affecting the nutrition. On the demand side, the food security problem has been complicated by an unprecedented sum up in population. Since the existing rate of population growth of over 3 percent per annum is expected to have-to doe with for a reasonable period of time, the total fertility rate also remaining well above the so-called replacement level, improvement in health-care facilities, which have already resulted in a remarkable disapprove in infant and child mortality evaluate has also contributed towards the high population rate in Pakistan. Transitory and chronic food insecurity is caused mainly by poverty. (Tweeten, 1999) People with adequate buying power catch up with the frictions of time (e.g., unpredictable, unstable harvests from year to year) and space (e.g., local food short- ages) to be food-secure. The conclusions of the aforementioned study advance suggested a food security policy synthesis for scummy, developing countries lik e Pakistan which are outlined as follows exiguity is best alleviated through broad-based, sustainable economic development. The most impelling and efficient means to economic development is to follow the model model, illustrated by the figure as at a lower place, which assures an economic pie to divide among people and among functions, such as human resource development, infrastructure, family planning, a food safety net, and environmental protection. The mensuration model is not merely an ideal it is applicable to any culture and leaves a workable prescription for economic progress, ensuring buying power for trust and food security. Eventually, in conjunction with family planning, it brings decreased population growth. Although no country has adopted every component, many countries have adopted enough components of the exemplar model to demonstrate its capacity for economic success. The central puzzle of wherefore food-insecure countries like Pakistan, eschew the standard m odel when it can bring food security is explained by political failure. Terminating even the worst policies creates losers. If the losers are in positions of power and license, they resist reform. Economic distortions provide economic rents for those in authority who bestow licenses and enforce regulations. Parastatals provide employment for friends and relatives of power brokers hence, unfortunate state-financial backinged policy carries powerful momentum. Political failure is inseparable from broader institutional failure. Food insecurity and economic stagnation are not the result of modified natural resources, environmental degradation, or ignorant people. Rather, they are the result of lead public policies, which in turn are the product of weak institutions and demoralise giving medications serving special recreates. Institutional change is required to adopt the standard model. Poorly structured, inadequate institutions often trace to cultural factors such as tolerance of the public for unrepresentative, corrupt, incompetent government. presidential term leaders often view their position as an opportunity for personal aggrandizement rather than to be a servant of the public interest. Socio-institutional changes, and hence standard model adoption, are blocked by cultural characteristics such as caste and heathen animosities, which provide a fertile climate for governments not representing the public interest to play one group against an new(prenominal). Thus, the challenge of food security for our time, as argued by Tweeten (1999), is socio-institutional change.A study was conducted by the IFPRI in 1977 that emphasized on the intensity of the problem facing the Developing Market Economies (DMEs) in countering food deficits in the wake of increasing populations. The options to grapple this challenge were outlined as increasing domestic production, commercial imports, reducing the food spending levels through pricing adjustments or rationing, and fo od aid. For a country like Pakistan, comfortably branded as a low income country, policy choices are limited. ofttimes of the population is already below the minimum dietary and nutritional requirements. moneymaking(prenominal) imports to cover up the food deficit may not be a plausible option because it deems imperative a huge opposed exchange outlay coupled with various alternative development expenditures seeking priority. The study concluded that in order to narrow the food gap, development efforts in such low income countries must emphasize on policies to increase and enhance production accomplishment. Large increases in agricultural investments coupled with appropriate policies and effective programs entrust be central.The third critical dimension of food security, utilization, refers to actual metabolization of food by the body. Food that is available and accessible does not alleviate food insecurity if people do not utilize food properly because of inadequate nutrition education and food preparation, drear habits, eating disorders, or poor health, such as intestinal parasites from insalubrious water. Thus, food security is appropriately defined not just as access but as utilization by all people at all times of sufficient nutrients for a productive and sizable life. It follows that sanitation, education, and health care are important instruments for food security. Despite per capita world food supplies being more than adequate to provide food security to all, food or income transfers among nations cannot be the principal instrument to end food insecurity. One reason is because altruism is too limited and fickle to provide sufficient, reliable transfers. Heavy dependence on transfers could discourage local production and create an unhealthy dependency of poor nations and individuals on rich nations, agencies, and individuals. grand food transfers would destroy incentives for local food producers. A nation must have a pie of purchasing power to divide and share among its food-insecure people. Because it is the poor who lack access to food, alleviating food insecurity means alleviating poverty. just about of the worlds poor, the 1.3 cardinal people with incomes of less than $1 per day (updated from domain of a function Bank 1990, p. 29), will have to escape poverty and food insecurity through economic growth. Economic growth largely was responsible for the 158 million reduction in numbers of undernourished people in East, South, and Southeast Asia from 1979-1981 to 1990-1992.In the intricate and underdeveloped economies of the Third World, the maintenance of minimum inlet levels for large segments of the population is a critical problem. Even in developing countries with a moderately well-developed industrial base, such as India, glaring nutrition gaps exist (Knudsen and Scandizzo 1979) and critical shortages can and do arise in basic consumption areas such as food, fuel, and clothing (Sharma and Roy 1979). Such shor tfalls have serious economic, social, and political consequences (Burki and Haq 1981). Therefore, governments in developing countries usually attempt a macro instruction management of selected consumption items. A fairly complex set of direct and indirect policies are used to influence the production, distribution, and prices of such items (Ahmed 1979, Dholakia and Khorana 1979, Kaynak 1980, Sorensen 1978). The formulation and implementation of such policies can be viewed as a macro-marketing management process Zif 1980. For essential consumption items, this process entailsi. Identification of key consumption items (products) and target groups (markets), ii. Development and evaluation of intervention methods (macro marketing strategies), iii. Creation of delivery or communication systems (channels) to stool the target groups or other intervention points, and iv. Monitoring and control of the consumption- oriented programs (macromarketing control system).In discussing the ration ale for Macromanagement System for Essential Consumption Items (referred herein as MSECI), two interrelated questions arise i.e. why do these systems come into existence and what are the goals of these systems. In analyzing why the government intervenes in the separative trade for essential consumption items, Sorenson (1978) cites four reasons, which are presented below in an elaborated versioni. Under conditions of scarcity (a typical feature in underdeveloped countries), the unfettered operation of the market mechanism is politically unacceptable. legal injury increases and shortages resulting from unfettered hidden trade would be politically too barbaric for the government in power. ii. distributed trade typically has a poor reach in the rural areas. In periods of shortages, rural distribution deteriorates even further, making government intervention a necessity. iii. The market mechanism is progressive tense in terms of prices, information, and market clearing. During per iods of shortages, these imperfections become magnified, inviting government regulation. iv. Profits and surpluses from private trade in developing countries usually do not light into productive investments. Instead, they flow into private consumption and investment such as clothing, jewelry, gold, houses, dowries, and so on. Hence, profits from shortages do not help alleviate the major cause of shortages, i.e. low levels of production. In fact, some of the surpluses may even punctuate shortages by becoming working capital for increased hoarding of goods. political science often intervenes to reduce the profits going into such unproductive uses.The populate of India as put forth by Dholakia and Khurana (1979) and other Third World countries points out a few other reasons for the emergence and growth of macro management systems in the distributive trade sector. Some of these arei. Distributive trades absorb a lot of people and provide a inexpensive employment outlet in developing countries. Governments often intervene to further some employment goals in addition to the distributional goals. In India, for example, the government often preferentially awards licenses to operate Fair Price Shops to those groups considered to be politically important unemployed college graduates, retired army personnel, widows of servicemen, etc.ii. Government intervention in distributive trades is often a consequence of agricultural price support programs. Once the government becomes a procurer and storer of large quantities of farm products, it require a distribution method for these products. An MSECI is created as a result. Once an MSECI is created, the change by reversal logic often takes over. For example, to support an extensive public distribution system in a southern state of India, the state government resorts to mandatary procurement of some percentage of farms output George 1979.iii. In a manner similar to agricultural policy, the industrial policy of developing co untries also leads to political intervention in distributive trade. To support small-scale, infant, or weak industries, the government sometimes assists in the marketing of the products of such industries by procuring their products and distributing them through socialist or subsidized channels Bhandari 1979. In Morocco, for example, the government subsidized the prior advertising efforts of a baby food considered to be important in meeting that countrys nutritional goals Vitale and Cavusgil 1981.These last three points illustrate how consumption- and distribution- oriented policies get intertwined with policies related to employment, agriculture, industry, and other sectors. The rationale and rationality of MSECIs must therefore be studied in the context of other related sectoral policies Gustafsson and Richardson 1979. While the above discussion throws some light on why MSECIs come into existence, it does not fully illustrate the range of goals that MSECIs may serve. According to Gustafsson and Richardson (1979), where there is a complex polity, not only are there multiple actors in the policymaking process but each actor sometimes has multiple goals. Politicians, for example, are interested ina) Solving problems, where it is feasible to do so and ideologically acceptable to the politician b) Agenda management, that is, getting problematic and intractable items transfer the political agenda, often by formulating do-nothing placebo policies, and c) Creating consensus, oddly when the issue is frankly fractious. In the context of an MSECI, purely placebo or consensus-making policies are unlikely to exist.This is because tummy issues are involved and simply managing the agenda or creating a consensus (without resolution the problem) is politically too risky. As a part of the problem-solving strategy, however, policymakers may make some efforts to manage agendas or create consensus. Policies geared towards essential consumption items are therefore likel y to have some symbolic, rhetorical, or negociate content (Lapps, Collins, and Kinley 1980).With reference to the rationale and goals of MSECIs, the following conclusions can be madea) MSECIs usually emerge in developing countries to serve short-term, volatile political problems caused by scarcity. Later, these systems may be further developed to embrace other economic goals. In fact, appropriately used, MSECIs could play an important role in balanced development (United Nations 1977).b) As the complexity of an MSECI increases, consumption and distribution-related policies become entwined with several(prenominal) other sectoral policies in developing countries.c) Analysis of MSECIs should be conducted with sensitivity to the goals utter and implicit of the different actors in the consumptive and distributive policy process.According to Hussain et al, the production instability and food insecurity in are interrelated. Most of the rain-fed agriculture of the country is experiencin g erratic production. The production instability index (coefficient of variation) is 29% in the Pakistan (Anonymous). Most variation is attributed to crop yields. The productivity per unit of resource especially water, is low. The declining resource productivity is due to increased water enter and salinity, nutrient depletion, deforestation and devegetation and increased pest complex. Looming water scarcity and disceptation for the same water from non agricultural sectors necessitates improving crop productivity to jibe adequate food for the nation with the equivalent or less water than is presently available for agriculture. This can be obtained because available information shows that there is a wide gap between actual and attainable crop water productivity, especially in the arid and semi-arid environments. Quantifying crop water output reveals gaps in information regarding pre-eminent ways to increase crop water productivity. Cropping systems need to be inherently flexible to take advantage of economic opportunities and/or adapt to environmental realities. A dynamic cropping systems concept characterized by a management approach whereby crop sequencing decisions are made on an yearbook basis has been proposed to improve the adaptability of cropping practices to externalities.STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN PAKISTANDespite a structural shift towards industrialization, agriculture continues to be the biggest sector of the economy. It contributes 21.8% of the GDP, employs 44.7 % of the workforce and is a major source of foreign exchange earnings . About 68% of the population lives in rural Pakistan and depends upon agriculture for their sustenance. Given its wide-spanning forward and reversive linkages, in particular with the Industrial sector, agriculture has assumed an added significance especially in the context of the prevalent global food crunch and food security. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2008-09, no economic reforms will be successful i n the absence of a sustained and broad based agricultural development which is critical for raising living standards, alleviating poverty insure food security, generating a buoyant market for industrial expansion an making a substantial contribution to the national economic growth.The utilization of agricultural land in Pakistan is illustrated by the table as under. The total area reported in the table includes the total physical area of the villages. woodland area refers to the area of any land administered as forest under any legal enactment dealing with forests. Any cultivated area which may exist within such a forest is shown under the heading of cultivated area. Culturable waste is that uncultivated farm area which, although fit for kitchen-gardening, has been left uncropped during the year under consideration as well as the one preceding. Cultivated area is the area which was sown at least during the year under reference or during the preceding year. This includes the net so wn area as well as the current fallow. The current fallow is the area that is ploughed but not cropped. With these definitions in context, a review of the agricultural land holdings of Pakistan is presented as under (Million hectares) dodge (Source MINFAL)An analysis of the land utilization statistics indicate that the total area under cultivation has registered a gradual increase during the period specified i.e. 1990-2008. The uncultivable land is being brought under cultivation and the total cropped area has also been increasing, though not very significantly.Given the importance of agriculture in the national economy, the policy focus has essentially been on agriculture even though the need for a structural shift towards industries and manufacturing gained importance post 1990s. If we smell at the historical statistics of the Pakistan economy, we can see how the performance of agriculture coincided with the GDP growth. Table below illustrates the performance and average annual g rowth rates of the Agriculture and the GDP for the period 1960-2009.AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH grade1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000-2009 GDP 6.8 4.8 6.5 4.6 5 Agriculture 5.1 2.4 5.4 4.4 3.0 TableBroadly speaking the growth rate of agriculture crosswise the periods specified in Table 1 was fairly good but the yearly growth rates during the same periods were erratic. The growth of agriculture was especially low in the periods of 1998-99 at 1.9%, 2000-01 at -2.2%, 2001-02 at 0.1% and 2007-08 at 1.1%. Considering the current decade, agriculture has grown at an average rate of 3.32% per annum. Of this, the growth performance over the last seven years has been of a volatile reputation ranging from 1.1% to 6.5% at the highest. See table below,AGRICULTURE GROWTH (%) Year Agriculture Major Crops Minor Crops 2002-3 4.1 6.8 1.9 2003-4 2.4 1.7 3.9 2004-5 6.5 17.7 1.5 2005-6 6.3 -3.9 0.4 2006-7 4.1 7.7 -1.3 2007-8 1.1 -6.4 10.9 2008-9 4.7 7.7 3.6 Table 2Federal Board of Statistics, Government of Paki stan(2009)This volatility can be primarily attributed to the crop sector which has been a subject of various pest attacks, irregular raining patterns, adulterated pesticides etc. There are two principal crop terms in Pakistan, Kharif and Rabi. The sowing season of the former begins in April-June and the harvesting occurs in October/ December while the latters begins in October/December and ends in April/ May. Major crops of the Kharif season include Sugarcane, rice, cotton and edible corn and those of the Rabi season include wheat, gram and lentils. As per the statistics of the MINFAL , the major crops such as wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane amount to about 89.1% of the value added in the major crops, and this amounts to about 33.4% of value added in the overall agriculture. The production statistics of the major crops of both the seasons are given in the table as under end product OF MAJOR CROPS (000 TONS) YEAR COTTON (000 BALES) SUGARCANE RICE MAIZE drinking straw2003-4 10048 53419 4848 1897 19500 2004-5 14265 47244 5025 2797 21612 2005-6 13019 44666 5547 3110 21277 2006-7 12856 54742 5438 3088 23295 2007-8 11655 63920 5563 3605 20959 2008-9 11819 50045 6852 4036 23421MINFALPakistans agricultural production is closely linked with the supply of irrigation water. The supply of irrigation water has been strained as indicated by Table 3 as under Actual Surface Water Availability (Million Acre Feet) Period Kharif Rabi Total % transform over Average Average System Usage 67.1 36.4 103.5 2002-3 62.8 25 87.8 -15.2 2003-4 65.9 31.5 97.4 -5.9 2004-5 59.1 23.1 82.2 -20.6 2005-6 70.8 30.1 100.9 -2.5 2006-7 63.1 31.2 94.3 -8.9 2007-8 70.8 27.9 98.7 -46 2008-9 66.9 24.9 91.8 -11.3 Table 3 (IRSA)As shown in the table, against the normal surface water availability at canal heads of 103.5 MAF, the overall water availability for both the crop seasons has been less in the range of -2.5% to 20.6%. If the water availability for the respective seasons is analyzed one can c onclude that the Rabi season faced a greater dearth of the water supply as compared to the Kharif season.