Over the last few years, Pakistan has been under the increasing threat of food insecurity. Several international organisations anticipate that the situation is likely to intensify in the near future, as perceived food shortage in the country and lack of affordability have coincided with the worldwide economic slowdown, rising global food prices, record high inflation in the country, and reduction in country’s capacity to import essential food items owing to weak foreign exchange reserves and devaluation of the rupee.

In addition, the nation’s food security challenge has worsened by the rapidly growing population, unpredictable climate change, and increasing risk of floods.

In the past, the government primarily focused on supply-side strategies — increasing crop areas and crop yields — whenever Pakistan suffered price hikes or/and food shortages. The unavailability of additional water supplies presently constrains such strategies due to reduced dam storage capacity and our failure to construct new dams.

For instance, wheat production has just increased from 19.18 million tonnes to 26.4 million tonnes equaling a 37.6 per cent rise during the last 20 years (2003 – 2022), whereas for the same period, according to World Bank’s data, Pakistan’s population expanded by 41.3pc — from 166.9m (2003) to 235.8m (2022).

Food loss at various stages in the mango value chain exceeds 35pc, while in the tomato value chain it is even higher to the tune of 45pc

Given the current circumstances, enhancing the agricultural output of grains, oil seeds, fruits and vegetables is just one aspect of addressing the food security challenge, which alone is not sufficient. Equally important is to reduce prevailing high food loss — mostly inadvertent and unintentional — at production, harvest, transportation, processing, and distribution stages, in addition to conscious food waste at retail shops, houses, restaurants, and marriage halls.

Just take the case of food loss in mangoes — the national fruit of Pakistan, and tomatoes — one of the most dominant vegetables in the global economy. Several studies indicate that food loss at various stages in the mango value chain exceeds 35pc, while in the tomato value chain, it is even higher to the tune of 45pc

Additionally, the production side of tomatoes experiences a unique type of food loss, where almost every second year, a significant number of farmers rotavate (destroy) their fruit-bearing fields when market prices plummet to a level insufficient to cover even harvesting and packaging cost.

Limited temperature-controlled storage, rudimentary value addition, and the absence of any mechanism to match the supply and demand of the perishable commodities in the country are some major factors contributing to such huge losses in the horticulture sector.

Such losses can be saved through appropriate policy measures and strategic interventions. Unfortunately, there are hardly any policy debates in Pakistan regarding incorporating food loss and waste reduction into the overall food policy framework. The last National Food Security Policy (2018) just briefly touched upon such loss/waste in a few lines without providing any actionable policy measures.

Undoubtedly, the responsibility lies with the government to not only sensitise the general public, farmers, and other stakeholders about the scale and magnitude of such loss/waste but also take appropriate measures for their reduction. However, the crucial question is how and to what extent the government should intervene. In this regard, there are at least three possible broad policy options that may be pursued.

First, given that such losses occur within private business entities, the government may not go for a regulatory approach to control them. Instead, it should act as a facilitator aiming at raising awareness among farmers and other value chain players, investing in developing appropriate infrastructure, creating a conducive environment for investment, and increasing access to finance for farmers and the private sector to invest more in good agricultural practices and post-harvest technologies; while leaving the rest to the private sector and market forces.

Second, in the given socio-economic context of the country with a low literacy rate in Pakistan, it seems that paternalistic laws have become necessary to regulate the choices and actions of farmers and other value chain players.

This approach is based on the assumption that without compulsion, they may not act in their own and country’s best interest due to impulsivity, cognitive biases, or/and lack of information. Helmet laws for motorcyclists and mandatory seatbelt use for car drivers are classic examples of such laws.

Several countries have enacted such laws and regulations to reduce food loss and waste, guided by the principle that although private farms/businesses have full control over their produce and have the right to fritter away them, these resources ultimately belong to the nation.

Considering that millions of people in the country face food shortages, it becomes essential to regulate the actions of those possessing such valuable resources.

However, the major challenge lies in the effective enforcement of such laws, particularly when millions of agriculture farms are scattered throughout the country. Recently, the government made a futile effort to reduce smog by imposing Section 144 to prohibit farmers from burning crop residues. The main lesson learnt is that government may pursue only those regulations that can be enforced effectively and efficiently to achieve the desired outcomes.

Third, there is potential to introduce some new laws and regulations within the existing legal and regulatory framework. However, they should be easily executable and can be monitored through limited control points, leveraging the prevailing institutional arrangements.

For instance, the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department can modify the criteria for varietal approval, giving higher weightage to those crop varieties that demonstrate resilience to adverse weather conditions such as windstorms, rains, frost, heat waves, etc, and offer protection against crop lodging, premature fruit dropping/shedding, pest and disease attacks, etc, in addition to better shelf life.

Likewise, in fruit and vegetable markets, the adoption of new packaging material and new designs of boxes can be made mandatory to reduce losses and prevent quality deterioration. This can be achieved by utilising the existing government’s institutional set-up of agriculture marketing and the current regulatory framework of Agricultural Produce Markets.

Similarly, the import of extensively used or substandard combine harvesters, which lead to excessively high harvest losses of crops, can be regulated through the existing machinery import laws administered by Pakistan Customs.

Though such interventions can prove highly effective, it is essential to recognise that they may not eliminate food loss entirely. Nonetheless, taking the initial step in the right direction is crucial, while much more needs to be done and done quickly to cope with the growing challenge of food security and climate change.

Muhammad Ahsan Rana is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at LUMS. Khalid Wattoo is a farmer and a development professional.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 14th, 2023