Training Report: Millennium Development Goals in the SAARC Region

Working Sessions
Prof. Dr. Faqir Muhammad Anjum (TI), Director General, National Institute of Food Science &
Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad presented his paper on “Food Security And Safety in
SAARC Region”. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all
times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Food security is
built on three pillars: food availability, food access and food use.
Agriculture holds a central place in all South Asian economies, except for Maldives. Moreover, this sector
employs more than half of the labour force in the SAARC countries, reaching 97% in Bhutan. SAARC
countries accounts for 23% of the world’s population, but generates hardly two percent of global income.
Housing 40% of the world’s poor (living on less than US $1 a day). 35% of the world’s under-nourished, the
Region has the highest concentration of poverty and hunger in the world. About 35% of the peoples in
Bangladesh, 25% in Sri Lanka and 20% each in India and Nepal are undernourished.
He said that major causes of food insecurity in the SAARC region are: low productivity of crops and livestock
as compared to that in many developed countries; decline in agricultural GDP in most of the SAARC
countries; investment for maintaining their vital irrigation infrastructure which has led to its rapid
deterioration; large disaster prone areas; recurring droughts in the arid and semi-arid parts; geographical
location in terms of inaccessibility for trade because Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan are landlocked countries;
heterogeneity in their physical and natural resources, endowments, biodiversity, socio-economic conditions;
dominance of agricultural sector; urbanization; and climate change.
He highlighted that the region is facing five groups of challenges: i) alleviation of hunger and poverty through
accelerated and sustained agricultural growth; ii) synergistically enhancing productivity and profitability of
small holdings, and ensuring environmental protection; iii) obviating risks and climate change management;
iv) farmer-market value chain-employment linkage; and v) ensuring responsive policy reforms, adequate
strategic interventions and satisfactory program implementation.
He informed that Food Security Index (FSI) has been developed for South Asia covering Bangladesh, India,
Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka based on the four indicators which are: i) per capita food availability index
(50% weight); ii) per capita food production index; iii) self-sufficiency ratio index; and iv) index of inverse
relative food price (last three equally weighted for the remaining 50%). The FSI for the SAARC region
showed fluctuations in individual years but an overall upward trend till 2000 after which it fell in 2001 and
then sharply in 2002. Subsequently, it improved; however, by 2008 it was only marginally better as compared
to 1990. Strategies to achieve food security may include economic measures, research and development,
development of infrastructure, establishing formal and informal education, modern methods of processing,
role of the government.
He mentioned that the level of attention to food safety stems from: the increased incidence of food-borne
illness worldwide; food safety governing national productivity by way of both household; community health
as well as by capitalizing on export potential. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations’ (FAO) report 2010, the total extent of the food-borne disease problem in the developing
world (SAARC countries) is likely higher but difficult to estimate since its victims often cannot track down
the cause and do not seek medical attention. Besides, medical systems in most countries are ill equipped to
monitor outbreaks. Regularly falling prey to food-borne diseases such as Cholera, Diarrhea and Hepatitis A, it
is here that the real tragedy manifests itself. Strategies to ensure food safety should take into account:
development of national food safety policies and infrastructure on the basis of local needs assessment; food
legislation and enforcement; increasing awareness of food processing technologies; education of
households/consumers in hygienic handling; improving the hygienic quality of street-vended food;
epidemiological surveillance. He also discussed the Punjab Food Safety and Standards Authority
Ordinance-2011.
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