Pakistan faces significant malnutrition problem

17 Aug bit.com

Pakistan is suffering from acute food insecurity, particularly in the southern province of Sindh. The 2008 food crisis is seen as the beginning of the current problems.

Moosa Khan, a low-level worker in Karachi's local government, is one face of Pakistan's significant problem with malnutrition.

He looks back nostalgically at the time when he could feed his family three solid meals a day. Now, he calls nutritious, wholesome meals "a luxury," adding, "more often than not we have nothing to eat."Pakistan is suffering from acute food insecurity, particularly in the southern province of Sindh. The province's Planning and Development Department recently reported that eight of its 23 districts have "extremely poor access to food."

Figures from the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a policy analysis organization in Islamabad, indicate that nearly 48 percent of Pakistan's population lacks sufficient access to food and is anemic and malnourished. In some parts of the country, the problem is especially serious. Pakistan was 75th among the 107 countries ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index for 2013.

The 2008 food crisis is seen as the beginning of the current problems. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics found then that food price inflation had risen to a record 34.09 percent. The Sindh government reported July 15 that more than 71 percent of the province's households face food security issues -- even though Sindh's economy is by and large agricultural, with 14 million acres under cultivation, and farming is the main source of livelihood. Among households without secure access to food, 34 percent report moderate hunger and 17 percent report severe hunger. Their agricultural production is usually exported for foreign exchange or smuggled to neighboring countries, such as Iran or Afghanistan.

"The reason for the extensive food insecurity in Sindh is the same as in the rest of the country and is a complex mix of poverty, poor governance and inequitable distribution," Abid Suleri, Sustainable Development Policy Institute executive director, said. Other factors, he said, include climate change, insufficient emphasis on agricultural growth, urban development, a growing population, fluctuation in oil prices, wide-ranging inflationary trends, political influences and displacement of people through natural disasters such as floods and drought.

Ghaffar Khan, a driver serving in a household in Karachi, earns about $150 a month, quite low by Pakistani standards, and has a family of five, including three children.

"After paying house rent, utility bills and school fees, I have a negligible amount to spend on food," Khan said.

"The result is that the nutritional needs of my family are compromised, and we eat one meal a day to make ends meet," he said.

Climate change is also a factor in access to food. Changing weather patterns recurring drought, floods and volatile precipitation patterns have played havoc with centuries-old agriculture, affecting the most vulnerable.

Allah Wasayya, a farmer in the coastal district of Thatta, has a large family, including nine children and elderly parents. Ten years ago, he was living a comfortable life with enough food for the family. Since then, floods and droughts induced by climate change, as well as sea erosion, have left his land barren."Most of the time we sleep hungry, as we have nothing to eat," Wasayya said. "Our lands have become unproductive because of waterlogging and intrusion of sea water."

Women, especially single women, children, and the elderly are hit hardest by food shortages. Gender plays a role in nutrition: even now, particularly in poorer rural communities, women are the last to eat, and poor nutrition in this patriarchal society is worst among young girls and women.