Food Crisis and Pakistan

May 16, 2008
Jawaid Imam
The Post, Pakistan

Food security, which is a local, regional and global concern, is increasingly drawing public attention. This is currently the hottest issue in Pakistan. Food prices are soaring, sending shockwaves around the world. Activists warn about possible riots. Aid agencies all around the world worry how they will feed the hungry. Governments dig deeper every day to fund subsidies. Sky-rocketing prices of food stuff is hitting consumers and raising fears of public turmoil in many parts of world. The reasons behind the looming crisis are numerous and complicated.

Experts blame the rising fuel and fertiliser expenses as well as crops curtailed by disease, pests and climate change. Poor weather in some countries is piling up the pressure. Desertification is accelerating in China and sub-Saharan Africa, while more frequent flooding and changing patterns of rainfall are already beginning to have a significant impact on agricultural production. For the last 30 years the price of basic foodstuffs has remained relatively constant. For most of that period, wheat, corn and soya actually fell in real terms. The finger of blame is being pointed at a number of sources, including increased demand from the growing populations and the transfer of land use from food to bio-fuel production.

In less than a year, the price of wheat has doubled; corn, maize and soya are all well above average prices during the 1990s. Rice is at a 10-year high. Food prices in the world markets have jumped 50 percent in the past two months and at least doubled since 2004. There are concerns that prices could rise a further 40 percent in coming months. The rising wheat price means the cost of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food. Riots from Indonesia to Haiti have caused political instability while rising prices for food staples have seen protests in Mexico, Egypt and the Philippines.

In Yemen, food prices have nearly doubled in the past four months, sparking demonstrations and riots in which at least a dozen people have been killed. In the Philippines, higher prices have already sparked protests where a government official has asked the public to save the leftover food. In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a ban on the export of rice to curb rising prices at home. Vietnamese exporters and farmers are stockpiling food stuff expecting further price increase. China, India, Egypt and Vietnam, four traditional rice and wheat exporting countries, have either imposed minimum export prices, export taxes or export quotas and bans. Such moves are expected to reduce rice and wheat exports from those countries.

Currently, the winners from the rising prices are farmers in rich and emerging markets like the US, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Australia that are getting record prices for their harvests. The biggest losers are poor people living in cities in the developing countries that are facing higher prices for imported food on low incomes. Over the past several weeks, Pakistan is facing acute shortage of wheat flour, either wheat is not available or it is so expensive that it stands beyond the reach of the common man. Poor people of this country stand in long queues to get flour and rice.

Pakistan is an agricultural land and the biggest exporter of wheat, rice and sugar and other forms of staple food. Over 70 percent of its population works in the agriculture sector. Pakistan has been facing acute shortage of staple food for many months. Our country is gifted with natural resources; still, food crisis raises its head every year. Who stands responsible for this crisis? Whether these are wrong strategies and planning of our rulers or the selfishness and slef-centredness of our hoarders? Flour is in such a short supply that the retailers are charging double of the price. Officials responsible to check the price-hike are doing nothing. The entire blame is on the government for its failure to ensure adequate supply of staple food to the people. Short supply of wheat has become a bone of contention between the provincial governments and the millers.

The millers are blaming that they were not getting adequate quotas while the provinces say that they were releasing sufficient quantity as per the requirements. The Federal Food Minister has claimed that the availability of wheat is improving fast but the situation on the ground is quite the contrary. What is surprising is that no action is being initiated against those who are responsible to ensure that wheat stocks are grinded by the flour mills. Though the government is trying to provide flour through the Utility Stores yet it has limited capacity and most of the flour requirement is being met by the private sector. Standing in long queues is surely a daunting task. The flour if available at a Utility Store is sold at Rs 155 instead of the official rate of Rs 130 and so on. The flour price in Zhob, Mastung, Loralai and other parts of Balochistan has hiked while it is not unavailable at Utility Stores in Quetta and other cities of the province.

According to provincial food secretary Azam Baloch, 20-kg bag of flour is being sold at Rs 278, 130 at the Fair Price Shops in Quetta and at various sale points arranged by the flour mills. In Peshawar, wheat flour is available only at few shops and is being sold at Rs 500 per 20-kg bag. According to the shopkeepers, flour supplies from the mills have decreased. Spokesman of Utility Stores Corporation has said the stores cannot meet the rising demand of the flour. According to the NWFP Flour Mills Association, the crisis is the result of dwindling supplies of wheat and flour from Punjab.

At the time of harvesting of the last wheat crop, it was estimated that there was record production and even the government allowed export of one million tons of wheat. We think the problems of scarcity are due to ill planning, poor system of estimation of the size of the crops, smuggling and market manipulation. Certain quarters say that wheat flour is being smuggled to Afghanistan and other neighbouring countries because the prices of this commodity in Pakistan are much lower. Seemingly, there is some weight in this argument but again it is the responsibility of the government to check the menace of smuggling. It is, thus, time that the authorities responsible to keep an eye on items of daily use drew up a solid strategy.

The middle class is the worst affected by the price-hike and food crisis. The blame for the people’s suffering falls on the shoulders of the bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians. One can see a lot of anger, resentment and discontentment over the rising prices. People seem to think that the government has been totally ineffective in checking the prices. Every year, there is one excuse or another. The people who are expected to tackle the colossal problem of food crisis have not proved their trustworthiness and dependability.

It is high time for the government to make practical planning, effective strategies and implement schemes to overcome this issue. Hoarders must be dealt with an iron hand and taken to task so that they may not dare to create more problems for the nation. Hoarders and smugglers should not be given any concession as they are killing innocent people with hunger and starvation.

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