Food is essential to life, hence, food safety is a basic human right. Fears are growing about food insecurity and shrinking space for growing essential crops due to the mushroom growth of private housing societies and commercial use of the land. Therefore, the government needs to fulfil farmers’ identical demands – the rising cost of production, water scarcity and cartelisation of agri-trade and inefficient markets, provision of enough land for cultivation etc. The government needs to formulate a food protection policy to safeguard agricultural land from being converted into housing societies or other commercial purposes, while the policy should be linked with major water reservoirs. Besides, the government needs to extend a subsidy on fertilizers. Food security involves ensuring both an adequate supply of food and access of the population to that sully, mostly through a chain of well-planned strategies and mechanisms. The food chain starts from the field to the dining table while challenges include the availability of fertile land, low-cost fertilizers, quality seeds, use of modern techniques during cultivation, access to local markets and last but not least the well-being of farmers. Pakistan is an agricultural state but its urban population is increasing due to the large scale migration of villagers to cities.
The agriculture industry is losing its charm due to challenges faced by farmers. So food security remains a major concern in a developing country like Pakistan. The federal and provincial governments need to address these issues as they have to employ various policies to address the food security concerns of the citizens. This underlines the significance of investing in the agricultural sector to boost food production. Policies at the micro and macro levels need to be evolved. Both micro and macro factors include the adoption of new technologies, availability of quality seeds and low-cost fertilizers and continuous research in the food industry. The policies associated with food security and usually involve structural changes in relative prices, the general economic environment, and other measures such as targeted food subsidies, improving technologies, and institutions available to farmers and consumers. The government needs to make investments in the agriculture sector and provide a conducive environment for growing foods. Stern action also needed to be taken against the use of agricultural land by land mafias who set up unplanned housing societies.
