Source: Bloomberg
By Jason Gale
Almost half the population of Pakistan, the world’s seventh-most-populous nation, faces difficulty gaining access to affordable food because of the soaring cost of cereals, a World Food Program official said.
The Rome-based United Nations agency increased its estimate of the number of so-called food insecure people in Pakistan to 77 million from 60 million, spokesman Paul Risley said in a telephone interview from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, yesterday.
Pakistan’s food prices jumped 21 percent in March from a year earlier, the fastest pace in at least six years, as water availability declined and farmers planted fewer crops, shrinking harvests. The South Asian nation may need to import wheat for a second year if the current harvest falls short of domestic demand.
“Pakistan has reached a tipping point,” Risley said. “It is no longer an exporter of food, but rather an importer.”
Pakistan is affected by world food prices that have surged by about 83 percent in the past three years, provoking riots in poor nations and threatening to set back efforts to reduce global poverty, according to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Pakistan’s prices of wheat flour, edible oil and pulses are at a record, according to Fareed Qureshi, chairman of the Karachi Retail Market Association. Flour is priced at 1,750 rupees ($27) for an 80-kilogram bag and the average price of pulses has risen 50 percent since January, he said.
Edible Oil
Average edible oil prices have climbed 16 percent since the start of the year and rice is 26 percent more costly than it was on Jan. 1.
Hundreds of people line up for hours outside state-run fair price shops offering subsidized food, where scuffles break out over bags of flour or rice.
Pakistan is one of 40 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, identified by the WFP as being at risk of food insecurity because of rising food prices, Risley said.
“In each of these counties, we are especially concerned that a lack of access to affordable food could lead to political instability and social disruption,” he said.
The rural poor will suffer hunger silently, while the urban poor will be more prone to rioting, Risley said.
“This is an expression that hasn’t been heard in decades because recent economic growth, especially in Asia, has helped poor populations in urban and rural settings,” he said. “Now we’re beginning to see a return to those very critical choices that are forced on families when food is not accessible, when food is not affordable.”
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Tags: access to affordable food, cereals, official, Population, soaring cost, World Food Program, world's seventh-most-populous nation
2 responses so far ↓
1 ahmed // Apr 27, 2008 at 5:30 am
This is very dangerous, suicide cases will rise sharply, WHAT A SHAME.
2 Ilyas khan baloch // May 3, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Dear Sir/Madam,
An Open Invitation for the Change of Socio-political System.
Q.9.How the Cooperative farming will help to solve the problem for providing cheap food products in the market?
A.9 Cooperative farming: Pakistan is an agricultural country. Agriculture is traditionally considered a rural activity. However with rapid change in rural-urban migration, the demographic scene in the country has changed radically. Greenhouse production, dairy, poultry and food processing plants, and the production and marketing of pre-cooked foods etc. have acquired tremendous importance. We must therefore recognize urban agriculture as an important component and specifically prepare manpower for this activity. Islamic Democratic Party will set up a network of service centres for farmers at Division level and reforming land acquisition laws and computerize land records, ownership and all other relevant information
However, IDP will initiate and inclined all the farmers within the division to be members of the Co-operative without any discrimination weather small farmer or big one, which will be run by experts along with the representative from the members of the cooperative, the council will provide them useful information about the corps and support to the cooperative. Divisional Council will protect the interests of the farmers and consumers. All the government unused land in council area will be allotted to the farmers for cultivation. The council will provide all financial help, mechanical help seeds agriculture expertise, irrigation and market services to the cooperative. It is our utmost desire to increase irrigation area through construction and optimal use of water through small, medium and large irrigation projects within division from beginning to end the network of cannel, required water will be supplied to the farming areas, Providing reasonable return to the farmers and cheap food supply to the consumers.
All the members of the cooperative will be responsible to work on their land, in other case the land less farm labour will work for them and be given payment by the cooperatives from the earning of those particular land owners. The farmers will be trained in all respects by the cooperative. At the end of the day the total production will be sold to the group of the business people at a price with reasonable profit. In turn the business group from the chamber of commerce will be responsible to supply the product at reasonable profit to whole sellers and wise a versa to the retailers alternately the product will reach to the consumer at price they can easily afford .The mass production with mechanical, use will produce the production in huge quantity and therefore will be possible to provide it to consumer at cheap price defeating profit mongers and stockiest exploiting the market demand and supply rule. At the same time agro industries will be developed to utilize the by product of the farm and generating employment in the rural area and more revenue will be generated.
www.idp.org.pk
Ilyas khan Baloch
Islamic Democratic Party
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