Did you know the single largest cost to the global economy is caused by malnutrition? According to a recently released report by the FAO titled The State of Food and Agriculture, child and maternal malnutrition cost nearly five percent to the global GDP. That measures a huge $3.5 trillion or $500 per person. And all this, without ever taking into account the social costs of malnutrition.
There are no marks for guessing that Pakistan would be found on the wrong end of the list in all such measures. While the cost of malnutrition in over the past two decades has almost halved globally, it has almost remained the same in Pakistan, indicating how far behind Pakistan has been in the race to combat nutrition challenges.
That nearly 46 percent children in Pakistan face stunting which is almost double the global average comes as little surprise. But that Pakistans numbers are even worse than those in Sub-Saharan Africa must be an eye-opener for the policymakers, if there are nay in this regard.
Nearly half the countrys children have trails of micronutrient defeminise and anaemia. Iodine deficiency in Pakistan is double than that in Sub-Saharan Africa - featuring better than the likes of only Afghanistan and a handful of little known countries.
Improving the nutrition in food is one of the man recommendations that the FAO has forwarded to combat malnutrition or low-income countries. Pakistan should consider itself lucky for having rich fertile land, the yield of which could be further improved through balanced fertilization. Sadly, the application of fertilizer in Pakistan has largely been confined to nitrogen fertilizer, and the dream of balanced fertilization still seems distant.
Studies have proved that balanced concentrations of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous can enhance crop yields and improve the micronutrient concentration in crops. Not only does the use of organic and inorganic fertilizer increase the yield of the crop, but also improves the nutrition content. For instance, addition of potassium fertilizer in fertilizer mix could do wonders for Pakistan towards overcoming the high iodine defection prevalence.
Surely, balanced fertilizer application is just one of the many things that need to be done, but as a starting point, Pakistan would do well to seriously consider encouraging balanced fertilization. A country with healthier children is the road to prosperity, and now is the time to act.
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