The world population is growing steadily and is increasingly urbanized.

Technology is evolving
incessantly and the economy is more and more globalized. At the same time, there are worrying
global trends in malnutrition, including a rapid rise in overweight and obesity, even as forms of
undernutrition persist. The way food is produced, distributed and consumed worldwide has also
changed dramatically. This vastly different world calls for new ways of thinking about hunger and
food insecurity.
What is hunger?
Hunger is an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of
dietary energy. It becomes chronic when the person does not consume a sufficient amount of
calories (dietary energy) on a regular basis to lead a normal, active and healthy life.
What is food insecurity?
A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for
normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. This may be due to unavailability of
food and/or lack of resources to obtain food. Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of
severity. FAO measures food insecurity using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) shown
below:

How are hunger and food insecurity related?

When someone is severely food insecure, they have run out of food and gone a day or more without
eating. In other words, they have most likely experienced hunger.
Severe food insecurity is one extreme of the scale, but even moderate food insecurity is worrisome.
For those who are moderately food insecure, access to food is uncertain. They might have to sacrifice
other basic needs, just to be able to eat. When they do eat, it might be whatever is most readily
available or cheapest, which might not be the most nutritious food. The rise in obesity and other
forms of malnutrition is partly a result of this phenomenon. Highly processed foods that are energy-
dense, high in saturated fats, sugars and salt are often cheaper and easier to come by than fresh
fruits and vegetables. Eating those foods may mean your daily requirement of calories is met, but
you are missing essential nutrients to keep your body healthy and functioning well . In addition, the
stress of living with uncertain access to food and going periods without food can lead to physiological
changes that can contribute to overweight and obesity. Children facing hunger, food insecurity and
undernutrition today may have a higher risk of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes
later in life. In many countries, undernutrition and obesity coexist and both can be consequences of
food insecurity.

The COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, and weather shocks have led to an increase in the number of
people facing hunger. According to the 2023 edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in
the World report, between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022, representing an
increase of 122 million people compared to 2019. (FAO)
Apart from hunger, the report also highlights that 2.4 billion people experienced moderate or
severe food insecurity and 900 million people faced severe food insecurity. Over 3.1 billion people
could not afford a healthy diet. Many children under five suffer from malnutrition. Exclusive
breastfeeding has improved, but more effort is needed to meet the malnutrition targets by 2030.
(FAO)

What is Food Security?

Based on the 1996 World Food Summit, food security is defined when all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs
and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
The four main dimensions of food security:
 Physical availability of food: Food availability addresses the “supply side” of food security
and is determined by the level of food production, stock levels and net trade.
 Economic and physical access to food: An adequate supply of food at the national or
international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security. Concerns about
insufficient food access have resulted in a greater policy focus on incomes, expenditure,
markets and prices in achieving food security objectives.
 Food utilization: Utilization is commonly understood as the way the body makes the most of
various nutrients in the food. Sufficient energy and nutrient intake by individuals are the
result of good care and feeding practices, food preparation, diversity of the diet and intra-
household distribution of food. Combined with good biological utilization of food consumed,
this determines the nutritional status of individuals.
 Stability of the other three dimensions over time: Even if your food intake is adequate today,
you are still considered to be food insecure if you have inadequate access to food on a
periodic basis, risking a deterioration of your nutritional status. Adverse weather conditions,
political instability, or economic factors (unemployment, rising food prices) may have an
impact on your food security status.

According to the World Food Program, WFP for short, 45% of the population is food insecure.

Conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertilizer prices are combining to create a
food crisis of unprecedented proportions. As many as 783 million people are facing chronic hunger.
We have a choice: act now to save lives and invest in solutions that secure food security, stability
and peace for all, or see people around the world facing rising hunger. (World Food Program)

Causes:
The causes of food insecurity are varied and complex and stem from a number of human-driven and
natural factors. Almost three-quarters of people who do not have enough to eat live in politically
unstable countries. War and other forms of conflict may affect people in the midst of the fighting,
and it may also affect those outside the immediate region. For example, the Russia-Ukraine War
(2014–present) has reduced grain shipments from Ukraine to countries in sub-Saharan Africa that
rely on them. Such supply-chain disruptions cause food shortages. In addition, increases in fertilizer
and fuel costs raise food prices, which reduces the amount of food poor individuals and countries
can purchase. Climate change also contributes to food insecurity. Floods, droughts, and other
changing weather conditions destroy crops and livestock while interfering with people’s ability to
work—further contributing to supply-chain disruptions.

First, though Russia’s war in Ukraine has reduced exports of grains and oilseeds, it has affected
consumption of other, more nutritious foods. In the WFP’s East Africa region, WFP reported that the
price of a local basket of food had increased by more than 55 percent over the past 12 months. (The
price of imported wheat alone had increased by more than 58 percent since Russia’s invasion.)
With Russia and Ukraine together accounting for one-third of global wheat trade, 17 percent of
global maize trade, and almost 75 percent of global sunflower oil trade, Russia’s invasion shocked
global agricultural markets. Immediately after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the FAO Food Price
Index hit an all-time high, followed by a second all-time high in March 2022. Though global food
prices have since retreated from this peak, they remain significantly higher than 2021.

Growing Cities, Growing Food Insecurity

First, there is a negative relationship between urbanization and food production; as urban areas
continue to expand, the area of cultivated land gradually decreases, which leads to a decrease in the
area of food sown, weakening the food supply capacity. Simultaneously, the concentration of the
rural population in cities has led to the abandonment of large areas of cultivated land, resulting in a
decrease in regional food supply capacity . In addition, urbanization can also cause soil
environmental pollution of cultivated land, crowd out water resources, and constrain food
production.

Population: According to estimates by the United Nations Population Division, the world will reach
some 9.7 billion people by 2050.

Inflation and Poverty: Direct relation

Pakistan
The government has put into gear a new strategy, backed by the army and financed by the food-
deficit Gulf countries and China, to tackle critical issues of low agricultural productivity, food
insecurity and food imports. The Land Information and Management System–Centre of Excellence,
launched on Friday, will focus on transforming how farming is done in Pakistan with a view to
optimising agricultural output for improving domestic food security and creating exportable surplus
for the Gulf states and China. It is being financed by Saudi assistance of $500m. The GIS-based
initiative aims at enhancing modern agro-farming, and utilising 22m acres of uncultivated state land.
The government is expecting huge investments in agriculture from the Gulf and China under LIMS.

It is perhaps the first multipronged strategy designed to simultaneously target urgent challenges
related to agriculture: growing food insecurity, a surging food and agricultural import bill and
diminishing export surplus. The success of the new scheme is projected to address these issues to a
large extent.

While the LIMS initiative is a step in the right direction, its scope is likely to remain confined to the
foreign-funded agriculture projects under it — mostly for producing exportable surplus for investing
nations. With food insecurity rising in the country — the World Food Programme has said that 37pc
of Pakistanis are food-insecure and one-fifth of them are facing a severe food crisis — it is imperative
for policymakers to quickly design strategies to deal with long-standing, deeper structural issues such
as climate impact, soil erosion, land fragmentation, lower crop yields, etc, All these are pulling down
Pakistan’s important agriculture sector.

This becomes even more critical as the population is projected to grow to 367.8m by 2050. The
surging population has already put unbearable pressure on the food system, and food insecurity in
the country is billed to worsen in the coming years unless remedial steps are taken now.

There is no doubt that the government needs to encourage the utilisation of uncultivated state land
to boost crop output. Besides investing in swathes of wasteland to make them cultivable, it must
also put a stop to the encroachment of agricultural lands by sprawling housing schemes. A lot is
required to be done to ensure food security and create exportable agricultural surplus. The LIMS
initiative is only the first step. The next one should focus on strengthening the capacity of
agricultural research institutions to increase yields.