Over 60 percent Pakistanis experiencing food insecurity: FAO official

[Mr. Khan]

Even being surplus in food grains' production, more than 60 percent people in Pakistan are still experiencing food insecurity, as food is inaccessible to them due to all-time high food inflation being faced by poor segment of society. This was stated by the National Emergency Co-ordinator, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations, Dr Faizul Bari while addressing a seminar here on Monday.

Consultant Nutritionist SIH Dr Rezzan Khan and Consultant Medical Specialist SIH Dr Aamer Nazir Ahmad were among the other speakers. The World Food Day like other parts of the world has been celebrated in Pakistan for the last 4 decades but the country has considerably failed to ensure the availability of food to the poor segment of society. The country produces 36 million tons grains while its consumption is 28 million tons. But in spite of having 8 million tons of surplus grains, Pakistan is still facing high food inflation.
Dr Bari said it has become difficult to have access to most of the fruits and grains in Pakistan due to low purchasing power of the people and the food insecurity is leading to malnutrition. "About 925 million people in the world are suffering from hunger and malnutrition in the year 2011," Bari added.
The food insecurity in Pakistan increased mainly due to the recent floods. World Food Day was proclaimed in 1979 by the conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It marks the date of the founding of FAO in 1945. The aim of the Day is to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
Unfortunately, in some parts of southern Punjab and Sindh, most of the farmers did not go for sowing this Kharif season because they are afraid of the expected floods, which they think will make them unable to pay bank loans. Dr Rezzan Khan quoted a survey conducted in 2004 according to which 10.5 million children died before their fifth birthday and many of these deaths were from preventable causes that were exacerbated or caused by malnutrition.
Malnutrition at an early age leads to reduced physical and mental development during childhood. Stunting, for example, affects more than 147 million pre-schoolers in developing countries, according to SCN's World Nutrition Situation 5th report. Iodine deficiency, the same report shows, is the world's greatest single cause of mental retardation and brain damage. She lamented that in Pakistan infant mortality rate (IMR) is 65 per thousand births and under-five mortality rate is 78 deaths per 1,000 births, which was drastically high. "Malnutrition is directly and indirectly responsible for 50 percent of all under 5 deaths in Pakistan."
Dr Rezzan said that economic and social development coupled with increased urbanisation affect food supply and production.

read more : Over 60 percent Pakistanis experiencing food insecurity: FAO official | Business Recorder

 

[Veeru]

I can predicts soon many pakistani will start trolling to derail this thread at any cost they will talk about world, India, moon and even alien but try to ignore the subject and topic.

 

[53fd]

Food inflation is a huge problem in Pakistan, which needs to be rectified immediately.

 

[Mr. Khan]

How Pakistan's Crises Are Undermining Public Health


A recent dispatch in the Los Angeles Times contains more bad news from Pakistan—but not the kind Americans have come to expect. This latest news is about polio eradication efforts in that country, which, according to the article, are “faltering” in a climate of widespread anti-American sentiment and religious fundamentalism that is suspicious, even hostile, toward vaccinations (a sentiment only strengthened when news emerged that the U.S. had organized a fake vaccination drive in an effort to get a DNA sample from the family of Osama bin Laden). Some public health officials in the region have even been assassinated by the Taliban. But how do scholars assess the progress of polio eradication?

A variety of studies and reviews confirm that observers are increasingly worried. A 2010 article in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization notes that while the “initial success” of eradication efforts in Pakistan was “remarkable,” “since 2007, there has been a marked resurgence of polio cases.” Indeed, as a 2011 article in Nature notes, out of the four countries where the disease remains endemic, Pakistan is the only one “in which polio is making a comeback.” This is due in part to the impact of war on that region, but efforts have also been hampered by corruption, poor sanitation, and insufficiently-funded and unreliable public resources. Reports occasionally contain small reasons for hope: For one, religious opposition to the vaccine has not proven universally insurmountable. A 2009 article in the WHO’s Bulletin described outreach efforts to religious leaders and noted that as recently as 2007, engagement with those leaders had softened opposition (and increased vaccination numbers) in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. This, as officials know, is critical to the success of broader eradication efforts: As the British medical journal The Lancet noted earlier this year, Pakistan “accounts for 60% of polio cases among endemic countries, and is the only country with an increase in cases from 2009,” making it “the final frontier for a polio-free world.”
How Pakistan's Crises Are Undermining Public Health | The New Republic

---------- Post added at 10:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 PM ----------

Pakistan is having tough time in almost every field and things doesn't seem to get better soon...sad

 

[American Pakistani]

i have read somewhere that the overall purchasing power of Pakistanis has gone down by 50% in Pakistan. While entire Aisa is going UP, pakistan is going DOWN. sad

Post the source where you read that rubbish.