Food Security in Pakistan

Over the past few decades, the concept of security has undergone significant evolution. Once defined in narrow military terms, involving protection of sovereignty, territorial integrity and defence against external military aggression, it now also includes safeguarding a state from non-military threats like economic instability, environmental degradation, ethnic conflicts and terrorism. The meteoric rise of China and a growing global emphasis on economic competition added further impetus, leading to the emergence of an individual-centric concept of national security. Achieving comprehensive national security has now become a stated goal of every state, involving policy and administrative measures to ensure environmental security, health security, political security, homeland security and, obviously, food security. Food security is now considered a vital prerequisite to provide human security, economic security and health security. Despite the obvious and low-hanging dividends of this vital pillar of security, the state of food security in Pakistan has become dire, necessitating remedial measures on a war footing to remove the hanging swords of low labour productivity, loss of labour and enhanced burden of healthcare.

Before we move ahead to discuss food security in Pakistan, it would be pertinent here to define the concept of food security and its dimensions for a comprehensive understanding of the topic at hand.