Food for thought

Across the world, growing food security issues are calling for extreme measures to cap rising commodity prices, food shortages and malnutrition.
"We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told a global news agency.
The fury in the global food market is stemming from the drastic increase in food prices during the past few years. This can be gauged from the fact that the Annual FAO food price index jumped by average 12 percent during the past four years compared to annual average of 4 percent between 2000-06.
The prime reason behind this price hysteria is the growing global population level, which more-than-doubled in the past forty years to around 6.8 billion in 2010, putting pressure on global food supplies.
On top of that, limited supply of agriculture commodities coupled with high crude oil prices have been contributing to food inflation. The tight demand-supply situation has led grain-producing countries to hoard stocks to address their own food security concerns.
Given the current scenario, policymakers around the world are demanding measures to facilitate smooth trade flow amongst countries, such as reducing export restriction, lowering import taxes on food items and regulating price of key staple foods etc.
The FAO in its recently released policy guide Guide for Policy and Programmatic Actions at Country Level to Address High Food Prices advises policymakers to adopt a set of strategies to increase food availability and ease prices.
"Since the situation can vary from country to country, one size fits all strategies are not effective; they have even been counterproductive in many cases", according to the report.
As decision by one country (such as export ban) often negatively impacts world prices, countries should carefully analyse the decisions taken by them to avoid negative repercussion on importing countries.
Besides, the report emphasises the need for various production support measures, such as incentives and financial support for farmers, availability of fertilisers, advisory service, use of Integrated Pest Management and better post-harvest management amongst other measures.
With Pakistan in the high risk category on food security risk index, rising food prices signal tough times ahead for 170 million consumers. It also highlights the need to address core issues responsible for perennial inflation and to adopt measures necessary to boost output in the country.