After every 6 seconds somewhere
in the world a child dies due to hunger or hunger related diseases. This is one
of the biggest dilemmas that world spend about trillion of the dollars on
weapons and billions of humans go hungry. Currently, it is a trend of
extraordinary increase in food prices along with diminishing food stocks. This
is the most prominent issue and at least world’s leaders should have a debate on
it because prices of food items have made the food precious.
Talking about Pakistan, its hunger levels increases as a result of disasters. It
is the country where charity donation is more that ZAKAT. We spent $70 billion
on war-on-terror and total aid is $20 billion, so the broader poverty measures
cover food, income, health education. It is sarcasm that many citizens now eat
to remain alive and not to look healthy. A shortfall in the production of some
essential commodities raised food prices. Essential items includes wheat, flour,
sugar, poultry, mash pulse, meat, milk, tea, fresh vegetables etc. and these
account for almost 23% of the total weight in the Consumer Price Index.
It is estimated that 36% Pakistanis live below the poverty line and almost half
are illiterate. It is time for Government to test the reliability of its
strategic grains reserve and it is only meaningful if the Government is able to
feed its citizens. A hungry man cannot be mobilized for national economic
recovery, growth and development. There are claims that the food crises are
connected to security challenge, as it has made it impossible for many merchants
to trade.
There is fact that words are cheaper than money and naturally, people cannot eat
words. If this would be possible then billion of the empty bellies would now be
full.