FSA Team Table of Content Executive Summary Introduction Conclusion Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan Table 6.4 (opens in a new window) Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan Table 6.5 (opens in a new window) How to Get a Copy of this Report?

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FSA Team

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Being a basic human need, food has been declared as a fundamental right under the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948. Scarcity of food can be a potential source of conflicts and incidence of socio-economic and political instability. There is a close nexus among food insecurity, poverty and disease. So food is not only an agricultural and a trade commodity but is also a political and public health issue.

Despite being a complex process, securing food is the only way to honor the right to food and thus international commitments. Food security leads towards healthy lives, a resolve national governments have reiterated through international covenants and declarations such as the UDHR 1948, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR 1966) and World Food Summit (WFS-1996).

Food security has international, regional, national and household dimensions. Effective supply and demand and equitable distribution of food are the preconditions to secure food at any of these levels. A minimum level of health standard that can help convert food intake to support a healthy body is an additional requirement to measure effective food security.

For sustainable food security at national and household levels, states need to provide its people an enabling environment by ensuring them an easy access to opportunities of having sufficient food. They need to monitor the state of food security within their respective countries and at household levels. Food Security Analysis (FSA) provides such an opportunity that helps plan and timely intervene to ensure food security. This however, requires institutional capacity and capability, which many developing countries including Pakistan lack at present.

World Food Programme (WFP) Pakistan, being cognizant of this deficiency, undertook a preliminary FSA in 1998. Its findings however, could not help ascertain the true food security situation of Pakistan due to limited scope and content of the FSA.

This shortcoming prompted WFP to plan another more comprehensive FSA, both for rural and urban areas. As in case of poverty, there also exists in many countries a rural urban divide in terms of food security. Accordingly, at first place, FSA 2003 for rural Pakistan was undertaken from June 2003 to June 2004. It analyzed, using a set of relevant indicators, available secondary data on the basis of three key determinants of food security namely physical access to food (availability), economic access to food, and effective biological utilization (food absorption). FSA 2003 findings, summarized below, translate into a "State of Food Insecurity" prevailing in Rural Pakistan.

Food availability, the 1st pillar of food security, was assessed on the basis of food production and consumption. Out of 120 district settings in Pakistan, 74 (62%) were found to be food deficit in terms of net availability. This deficit varies ranging from low through high to extreme degree. Wheat, a staple, catering for 48% of caloric needs in Pakistan, was found deficit in terms of net availability and the shortage was estimated at 3.2 million tons annually. Out of 120 districts, only 48 (40%) were producing surplus or enough to cater to the needs of these districts. In other words, 72 districts (60%) were deficient in wheat availability.

Among 29 wheat surplus districts, 69 percent were in Punjab, 21 percent in Sindh and 10 percent in Balochistan. FSA 2003 ranked, in terms of availability, NWFP, Northern Areas (NAs) and AJK as net food insecure. This state of insecurity, translated into caloric supply at provincial level, revealed that in NWFP caloric poverty in terms of its incidence was the most prevalent as only 1106 Kcals per capita were available from the provincial resources. This caloric shortfall leads towards hunger, as defined by FAO and discussed elsewhere in this report.

FSA 2003 also indicates that mega cities pitted against mounting population pressure are also being adversely affected. For example, even in wheat surplus province of Punjab, the provincial capital Lahore, home to 81 percent of the district population, was among the net food insecure zones in terms of availability.

In Sindh, 6 out of 17 (35%) districts were wheat surplus and only 8 (47%) were in self-reliant bracket as against 9 (53%) wheat insecure districts. It suggests that even Sindh, the 2nd largest wheat-producing province, was deficit in terms of wheat availability. In Balochistan, only 3 (12%) out of 26 districts were production surplus as against 18 (69%) wheat deficit districts. In NWFP, there is no wheat surplus district and only 2 (8%) out of 24 districts were self-reliant in wheat production.

In case of rice, the 2nd staple, only 37 (31 %) out of 120 districts were found to be production surplus. Of these, 57 percent were in Punjab, 19 percent in NWFP, 16 percent in Sindh, 5 percent in Balochistan and 3 percent in F ATA. In Punjab, 71 percent of districts had either surplus production or had enough rice to meet local needs, and 29 percent of districts experienced varying degree of deficit in rice. In Sindh, out of 17 only 6 (35%) districts were surplus, while 65 percent of districts were deficit in rice production, compared to 53 percent deficit in wheat.

In case of NWFP, rice availability was better, as 10 (42%) districts out of 24 had surplus production or they were self-reliant, compared to wheat where 22 districts were deficient in wheat.

Cereals meet one-half of caloric needs in developing countries. On net cereal availability basis, out of 120 districts 31 (26%) had surplus production. Of these, 23 were in Punjab, 5 in Sindh and 3 in Balochistan. There were yet another 21 (18%) districts that could meet their local needs. In sum, 52 (43%) of the districts in Pakistan were found self-reliant in net cereal availability and remaining 68 (57%) were deficit in cereals.

On overall crop-based food availability (exclusive of livestock products) out of 120 districts, 39 (32%) had surplus production, 6 (5%) were self-reliant while 35 (29%) were extremely insecure and 40 (33%) experienced deficit of low to high degree. This suggests that net crop-based food availability, compared to net cereals or wheat/rice availability was better.

Availability of livestock products, contributing 7 to 16 percent in daily diet of rural people, presents altogether different picture compared to crop-based food. In this case, the marginal land areas such as Balochistan, NAs, FATA and part of NWFP, that are otherwise acutely deficient in crop-based food, generate production surplus in case of livestock products. Out of 120 districts 43 (36%) have surplus production and another 37 (31%) have sufficient livestock-based food production. In total, out of 120 districts, 80 (67%) are self-reliant and only 40 (33%) encounter some degree of deficit in livestock-based food. FSA 2003 findings suggest that marginal lands of Pakistan have comparative advantage in livestock production, as against fertile belts of Sindh and Punjab that enjoy advantage in crop-based food production.

On net agro-livestock products basis, including both key sources of food availability, 34 (28%) out of 120 districts were found surplus. These figures, translated into net food availability, suggest that 74 (62%) out of 120 districts faced deficit of varying degree.

In terms of economic access to food, as against the physical access food availability affords, FSA 2003 revealed that income inequality factors especially land, and access to opportunities such as education and employment have led to a wide range of disparities. Consequently, women, labor, landless and small farmers are being adversely affected in terms of access to food, as the above-mentioned inequality factors impact income opportunities. For example, in 57 (48%) out of 120 districts literacy rate was in the range of 1130 percent.

Reduced capacity of agriculture sector in terms of gainful employment is another important factor impacting opportunities in rural Pakistan. Further, as majority of holdings were small, such as in 105 (88%) out of 120 districts, percentage of marginal cultivators having less than one acre of land was up to 30 percent. The small farmers were thus unable to enhance agricultural productivity beyond a certain limit for want of resources and economy of scale.

The number of landless farmers too was high, for example, in 30 (25%) districts, the number of such farmers was above 20 percent. As a result, the low income of96 (80%) districts out of 120 found further plunging into low through very low to extremely low-income bracket, impacted economic access to food. This limited physical and economic access to food, translated into caloric poverty, suggests that out of 120, only 34 (28%) districts had surplus, while 12 (10%) had enough caloric supply. Whereas, 74 (62%) districts were found deficient in terms of caloric supply assessed on the basis of 2350 Kcal per capita per day and as recommended by Planning Commission of Pakistan. Other factors such as rural infrastructure, especially the roads that provide access to local market, also seem to affect the income and thus access to food.

Effective biological utilization or food absorption, the 3rd pillar of food security, was assessed on the basis of parameters including access to safe drinking water, immunization cover and infant mortality, access to medics and paramedics and rural health infrastructure. It revealed that out of 120 only 11 (9%) districts of Pakistan performed reasonably well while 45 (38%) experienced extremely low rate of food absorption. Poor food absorption speaks of nutritional insecurity, even if food is available and is also accessible. Achievement of nutritional security implies biological availability of protein, energy, micronutrients and minerals to households. Since ensuring nutritional security of the household in Pakistan remains the exclusive domain of women, responsible for preparing and serving food, they along with their children and other members of the household whom they cater food are adversely affected by this situation.

The contributory factors to this state of affairs include inter alia the poor access to potable water, for example in 113 (94%) out of 120 districts, safe drinking water was available to less than 50% percent of the population. It implies that 50 percent of the population drinks unsafe water which contaminates food. The food-borne diseases perhaps are the most widespread health problem in the contemporary world and are important cause of reduced economic activity. Similarly, on disease control front, primarily a function of effective immunization programs, FSA2003 revealed that 108 (90%) out of 120 districts had immunization cover of less than 80 percent. Resultantly, infant mortality rate was above 80 per thousand in 34 (28%) districts outof120.

Overall health security as assessed by rural health infrastructure and access to medics and paramedics was another contributory factor towards poor food absorption. For instance, in 117 (98%) out of 120 districts, rural health facilities were less than 51 per million population. This included Punjab province which otherwise had better performance, on parameters such as food availability and economic access. As ensuring food security for household is not only a function of food availability and economic access but also of whether or not the available and accessible food fulfills nutritional requirements of the household. So, the poor health security and resultant poor absorption impacts the net gains.

The net impact of these factors, assessed on the bases of three aforementioned determinants or three pillars of food security translates into net state of food insecurity, prevailing in 80 percent of the rural Pakistan, ranging from less to extremely insecure levels.

FSA 2003 also came up with substantial evidence that inter and intra provincial disparities exist in terms of food security. For example, majority of food insecure districts 28 percent fall in Balochistan, followed by 26 percent in NWFP, 14 percent in Sindh, 13 percent in Punjab, 9 percent in FATA, 6 percent in NAs and 5 percent in AJK. In the intra provincial context, 65 percent of food insecure districts were in Sindh, 29 percent in Punjab, and 88 percent in NWFP, 85 percent in Balochistan, 100 percent each in NAs and F ATA.

These findings of FSA 2003 are revealing in many ways, for example they disagree, based on available evidence, with the commonly held opinion that Pakistan was moderately food secure at macro level. The findings support the argument that hidden hunger is more pronounced in Pakistan than what macro picture of food security presents. In view of growing population pressure and resultant demand of food, FSA findings are enough to ring the alarm bell, as they estimate an annual shortfall of 3.2 million MT of wheat alone, the main staple, on the basis of average annual wheat harvest of 18 million MT.

In view of the foreign exchange required in procuring such a huge quantity of wheat, factors constraining productivity, the changing trade paradigm under the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the huge cost involved in readjustments, challenge is enormous yet it is not insurmountable.

Investment in agriculture and rural development, institutional capacity building, human resource development, integration of gender in development, promotion of equitable distribution, development of material and quality infrastructure inter alia are among some of the recommendations that logically follow FSA 2003.

FSA 2003 underscores the need for well thought of national food security strategies and suggests institutional arrangements needed for orchestration and integration of a strategy with other socio-economic interventions such as food availability and nutritional security at national level. It underlines the need that, to make development process responsive to the needs of the people, initiatives such as poverty alleviation should go hand in hand with those aiming at food security.

In this context, agricultural and rural development needs high priority in development plans which shall help correct the existing mismatch between food availability and the population's nutritional requirements.

Introduction

Food is a basic daily need for growth and sustenance of life and access to food is deemed as a basic human right. Whereas, undernourishment and malnutrition reduce the productivity of an individual, undermining national productivity and economic growth, food insecurity breeds crimes and fuels socioeconomic and political instability. On the contrary, food security helps underpin national stability through enhanced productivity and resultant economic growth & development.

According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, lack of livelihood or in other circumstances beyond one's control.

All the factors mentioned in the above statement are important parameters and are helpful in appraising the food security of an individual.

In this backdrop, the Director General of UN FAO in a statement issued in 1963 underscored that to achieve food security nation states need to:

• improve methods of production; conservation and distribution of food;
• disseminate the knowledge of principles of nutrition;
• and develop a reformed agrarian system.

Right to food was also recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966 and its Article 11 recognized the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for oneself and one's family. The right to an adequate standard implies inter alia right to adequate food, freedom from hunger and the ability to acquire food and improve conditions that help develop and sustain food security.

The States party to ICESCR resolved to take appropriate steps to ensure realization of these rights. Under Article 2 of this Covenant, these steps are to be taken by each party "to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to progressively achieve full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures (emphasis added)".

States party to ICESCR are required inter alia to adopt the legislative measures necessary to realize the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to adequate food. Several countries already have provisions on the right to food in their national constitutions. There still remains however, a worldwide lack of experience in designing and using national legislation to implement those provisions. Article 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan states that, "The State shall provide basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, housing, education, and medical relief”.

In 1980, a United States Presidential Commission on World Hunger reiterated that "where the right to adequate food remains unrealized, the protection of other human rights becomes a mockery". Thus, food security could be a pathway to peace as well as a result of it.

International Foundation for Peace and United Nations University/Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS) appreciates the role of agriculture that makes up the largest portion of employable economic activity in poor countries vulnerable to conflict. It suggests that there is a need to understand how agricultural development might support long lasting peace through its effect on risk factors of conflict that include inter alia food insecurity. The potential risk of conflict because of growing food insecurity can be understood from the following report of the World Food Summit (WFS) Declaration of 1996, stating that: more than 800 million people, mainly in developing countries (DCs), did not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. It was further estimated that malnutrition killed 400,000 people daily. Hunger was thus a profound affront to human dignity, honor and rights. Food insecurity can fuel conflicts and create chaos and tyranny. Being cognizant of the importance of food security, 185 countries participating in WFS vowed to achieve Universal Food Security implying access of all people, at all times to sufficient high quality, safe food to lead active and healthy lives.

The world's leaders renewed the resolve of States party to ICESCR, during WFS (1996) under Commitment 7.4 of its Plan of Action, in which they agreed to make every effort to implement the provisions of the Article 11 of the I CESCR. In this Plan of Action, governments pledged their political will and national commitment towards achieving food security for all and for an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger from the globe, with an immediate view of reducing the number of undernourished to one-half by 2015. In this context, obligations to such international human rights covenants and international commitments is the responsibility of each state which it can honor by ensuring full enjoyment of the right to adequate food to their citizens.

Whereas, the term "food security" reflects the desire to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, FAO has incorporated in its definition of food security the recommendations of the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN1993) and has defined food security as "access by all people at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life".

The WFS (1996), while building on this definition of food security, has further elaborated the concept by adding into it the dimension "when all the people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for active and healthy life." This international perspective of food security now provides a broader framework for the household's food security, and underlines the role of the state towards responsibility of securing safe, nutritious, culturally acceptable food for all its citizens at all times. USAID in this backdrop has defined food security "when all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life". Attaining this level of food security requires that:

• aggregate availability of physical supplies of food is sufficient,
• the households have adequate access to food supplies through their own production, market or other sources and,
• the utilization of those food supplies is appropriate to meet the specific dietary needs of individuals.

In sum, food security can be broadly divided into three main components, namely: food availability (physical access to food), economic access to food, and effective food utilization or absorption.

Food availability - the first pillar of food security - is achieved when sufficient quantities of food are consistently available to all individuals within a country. Sources of such a food supply could be household's own production, other domestic output, commercial imports or food assistance.

Food access-the 2nd pillar of food security, is ensured when a household and all members of the household have enough resources to acquire food meeting the nutritional requirements and dietary needs of the household. Access is thus primarily a function of a household's income, its distribution within the household and the price of food, besides the physical aspect.

Accessibility has thus both economic and physical dimensions. Economic accessibility implies that personal or household financial costs associated with the acquisition of food, to meet dietary needs adequately, should be at such a level that the attainment and satisfaction of other basic needs are not threatened or compromised. Economic accessibility applies to any acquisition pattern or entitlement through which people procure their food and is a measure of the extent to which it is satisfactory for the enjoyment of the right to adequate food. To this end, socially vulnerable groups, impoverished strata of the community, such as landless persons having poor access to food are trapped in a vicious circle of food insecurity.

On the other hand, availability of food implies that adequate food must be accessible to everyone, including physically vulnerable individuals, such as infants and young children, elderly people, the physically disabled, the terminally ill and persons with persistent medical problems including the mentally ill.

Victims of natural disasters, people living in disaster-prone areas and other specially disadvantaged groups, such as victims of conflicts, e.g., the refugees, may need special attention and sometimes even priority consideration with respect to accessibility to food. In this context, a particular vulnerability is of many indigenous population segments whose access to their ancestral lands and natural resources is on decline, that underpins food security, and is at times threatened.

Food availability and economic access to food alone can not ensure food security as proper food absorption is equally important. Thus, effective biological utilization or absorption is the third pillar of food security. It requires a diet providing sufficient energy and essential nutrients, along with access to potable water and adequate sanitation. Furthermore, food absorption also depends on the knowledge within the household of food storage and processing techniques, basic principles of nutrition, proper child care and illness management. Hence literacy and primary health education play an important role in overall effective utilization, of otherwise available and accessible food.

Improvement in terms of food availability and access can only benefit those at nutritional risk when concomitant efforts are made on the nutritional security front aiming at securing food of desired nutritional quality & safety and reduction of food & water-borne diseases. The WFS, as one of its seven commitments, seeks to ensure an enabling political, social and economic environment designed to create the best conditions for the eradication of poverty and for durable peace, based on full and equal participation of women and men, which is most conducive to achieving sustainable food security for all.

Achieving food security is thus arguably a necessary first step towards the more general development objectives like human development, poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth.

In contrast to the micro picture discussed above, Pakistan Human Condition Report (2002) states that 1I3rd of all the households in the country are living below food poverty line (Table 1.1). It means that they are not able to meet their nutritional requirements.

The incidence of food poverty in rural areas has increased from 26 percent in 1993-94 to 35 percent in 1998-99, which is higher than that of urban centers. With increasing poverty, Pakistan, despite its efforts to be food secure at macro level, has become a food insecure country at the household level.

The concept of food security translated at its various operational levels: individual, household, regional, national, and global has different meanings; and food security of households needs to be understood in this perspective. Achieving food security at national level does not necessarily guarantee food security at household level. One needs to understand the concept of food security and underlying factors responsible for poverty of food. Even if a household is food secure, it does not ensure that each member of the household is food secure.

This warrants close monitoring of food security through Food Security Analysis (FSA) exercises that shall help take informed decisions for securing food at household level. In case of Pakistan, affordability rather than availability is the core issue and income of the household and prevailing food prices are two essential elements that determine affordability at the household level.

The income generating opportunities available in the rural areas have a significant importance in this regard. The impact of reduced economic growth rate on poverty situation was more profound in rural areas where it increased from 26.3 to 34.8 percent as compared to urban areas where it increased from 19.4 to 25.9 percent. As a result, despite the fact that food production is concentrated in rural areas of Pakistan, yet food poverty is higher in rural areas as compared to the urban centers.

Agriculture sector being the lynchpin of the country's economy continues to be the single largest sector and a driving force for growth and development of the national economy. It accounts for 24 percent of the GDP and retains 48.4 percent of the total labor force1. It is also important to mention that 67.5 percent of the population lives in the rural areas and for that reason agriculture continues to be the mainstay of the populations in rural Pakistan. Therefore, any improvement in agriculture production not only helps in accelerating the overall economic growth of the country but also helps in reducing the overall poverty in the country. An increase in agriculture production causes a depression in the prices of the food commodities, which leads to lowering the burden of the poor-by reducing the expenditure incurred on food purchase. It means the years in which agriculture sector performs well, the rate of economic growth is relatively high and there is a concomitant decrease in poverty.

Objectives & Scope of the Food Security Analysis (FSA) 2003.

Keeping in view the importance of FSA 2003, in terms of its application, especially for the purpose of policy- making and its use by development practitioners, and as a benchmark for future studies, serious efforts have been made to undertake an objective analysis through broad-based consultative process. Scope of the earlier studies in this area was limited and it was difficult to assess the true picture from these studies.

In the beginning of FSA, 188 variables were selected against above stated three key determinants of food security. These were then reduced, on the recommendations of the Technical & Steering Committees, to a hundred. All possible efforts were made to collect relevant, reliable and available data for all the selected indicators. The data at the district level, however, was available at best for 60 variables only. During the data analysis, these variables were further reduced to 47 as many of the interlinked indicators were merged together. Resultantly, only directly related indicators were usedinFSA2003 exercise.

Collecting data on so many indicators was an uphill task, particularly in situations where no systematic base for such an exercise existed. The data set was collected from national as well as provincial public and private sources and from the documented records, relevant to the subject, available with the international agencies. One technical problem encountered during the exercise was of non-uniformity of data in terms of units/values used, e.g., land units vary among provinces. At first, these units were aligned, using conversion factors, which helped in bringing these into uniformity.

The key sources of the data used were the publications of Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Agriculture Census Organization, books on Development Statistics & Socio-Economic Development Indicators, Labor Force Survey, Nutritional Survey 1998, District Census and other reports published by various national and International research groups, such as United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report, CRPRID Human Condition Report, Social Policy and Development Centre Report, and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) reports on poverty.

Whereas, every effort has been made to screen the data and bring it in conformity with the methodology of the study, limitations in the form of variation in sources of data set and units used can potentially affect the outcome of the study. Notwithstanding these limitations, efforts have been made to make FSA 2003 as objective as possible. We understand that given the innovative approach of addressing food security issue in a holistic way, report in hand will go a long way in setting a trend and direction for such future studies.

Conclusion

Food insecurity in rural Pakistan is a product of poverty and inadequate food availability. Therefore, the term food poverty is commonly used to determine the level of poverty viz a viz food security in a country. The level of food poverty varies from district to district and even within the districts. It, however, follows a certain pattern.

Looking at the historical perspective, food insecurity and consequently food poverty has been on increase over time. Among the possible reasons inter alia are the sharp increase in market price of food items, compared to wages, non-systematic delivery of food, slow growth in public sector and low level of investment in socio-economic sectors. Moreover, rural development, in 10ng-tern1 perspective, has not been focused per se in national policies. The FSA 2003 findings present a clear picture of the inter play of all these factors.

FSA 2003 classified the country into five food security zones, extremely food insecure, very insecure, less insecure, moderately secure and reasonably secure.

Three of these five levels of ranking determine acuteness of food insecurity in rural Pakistan. FSA 2003 suggests that 38 districts out of 120 are the most vulnerable being poor and extremely food insecure. Majority of these districts fall in Balochistan and NWFP, while all districts in FATA and 4 out of 5 districts in NAs fall in the extreme food insecure zone.

There are another 16 districts falling in "very food insecure", and 26 districts in "low food Insecure" zones. In total, 80 districts out of 120, are vulnerable to food insecurity. The first two food insecure zones, consisting of 54 districts, have been ranked as highly vulnerable and call for an immediate attention. The remaining two zones are comparatively better, which have been ranked as "moderately food secure" and "reasonably food secure". These two zones comprise 40 districts and more than half of these are in Punjab. Thus, Punjab is relatively better in terms of food security. However, it does not mean that there is no food insecurity in Punjab.

A very interesting pattern has emerged from the geospatial analysis of the FSA 2003. Thefood insecurity map (6.8) shows that western part of Pakistan, right from north to south is food insecure except for one or two districts. This kind of picture has never been presented earlier. The outcome of FSA 2003 suggests inadequacies in terms of resource availability, development, and investment in these areas. Most of this belt falls in arid zone, away from riverine belt, and there has been no serious effort to break complete dependency of this area on farm sector. Further, this area lacks in terms of industrial development and there has been very little investment in socio-economic sectors.

The districts ranking of food insecurity reveals that Tharparker district of Sindh province is the most insecure district, followed by Dera Bugti in Balochistan province. These two districts are also on the top in provincial ranking of food insecurity.

FSA 2003 also attempted to depict the picture of population vulnerable to food insecurity or caloric poverty within the district. As explained earlier, food poverty exists within a district, even if it is food secure at macro level. However, the intensity of poverty will be less as compared to net food insecure districts. Based on the provincial threshold of food poverty, intensity of poverty has been assessed by analyzing the composite ranking of food insecurity.

Poverty in food insecure districts varies among districts. For example its incidence in the top ranking food insecure district of Balochistan I namely Dera Bugti is 73 percent, while its incidence in Tharparker Sindh is 72.4 percent, in Rajanpur Punjab 48.1 percent, in Shangla NWFP 37.4 percent, in Diamir NAs 46.2 percent, in Muzaffarabad AJK 33.7 percent and in North Waziristan FATA 48.8 percent. Within the districts, situation of poverty is quite alarming in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

Finally, FSA 2003 has set a trend of continuous monitoring of the most vulnerable and the poor within rural Pakistan, where poverty is multifaceted and is of complex nature. This, however, is not the last effort on our part as there is also vulnerable population in terms of food insecurity living in urban Pakistan that needs to be figured out. Urban food insecurity such as urban poverty is developing fast because of lack of proper attention and multiplying effects of migration of rural poor. Our next attempt, therefore, will be to identify the urban vulnerable poor that will give a holistic picture of food security situation in Pakistan.

In conclusion, if one regards human rights, then starting point is to respect the food rights, without which the rest is but a mockery; and to this end, all stakeholders need to work for the common cause.

How to Get a Copy of this Report?

Food Insecurity in Rural Pakistan 2003 is available both in printed and soft form. Please contact the following persons to obtain a copy of this report.

1 Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2002-03.