ISLAMABAD: An analysis by the United Nations World Food Programme has estimated that the daily cost of an energy-only diet ranged from Rs18 per capita in rural Balochistan to Rs32 per capita in urban Sindh.

The ‘Fill the Nutrient Gap’ (FNG) analysis released on Tuesday said nationally only 5 per cent of the population was unable to afford the costs of meeting energy needs.

The analysis on Pakistan is part of case studies carried out in 13 countries. The FNG is a methodology that estimates the cost and affordability of nutritious diets and combines this with secondary data on local food systems and environments.

The daily cost of a diet that meets individual nutrient needs (nutritious diet) was substantially higher, ranging from Rs67 per capita in rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Rs78 per capita in urban Sindh.

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Non-affordability of the nutritious diet was high — on average, 66 per cent of the population was unable to afford a nutritious diet. Across provinces, non-affordability ranged from 59pc in rural KP to 84pc in rural Balochistan.

The FNG analysis shows that adolescent girls and pregnant and breastfeeding women have relatively higher requirements of specific nutrients, such as iron, folic acid and vitamin B12. In the modelled household, this is reflected by the adolescent girl and the breastfeeding woman having the two highest costs of a nutritious diet within the household, together representing over 50pc of the household’s total cost of a nutritious diet in Sindh.

Children aged 12–23 months have the lowest cost of a nutritious diet compared with other members of the family as they consume less food, and the modelled diet assumes optimal breastfeeding, which covers a large proportion of their nutrient needs.

This age group, however, is nutritionally vulnerable as their smaller stomachs mean that meals must be provided at a higher frequency and need to include nutrient-dense foods to cover nutrient requirements. A failure to meet nutrient intake during this age also has lifelong consequences, warns the FNG analysis.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2024