Pakistan is an agriculture based country with most of its population living in rural areas practicing agriculture, yet it is one of the many developing nations facing a serious food crisis that is speculated to cause wide scale food riots if the problems are not taken care of at the earliest.

One would ask why there is a major flour crisis in a country that calls wheat its staple diet and has just harvested its wheat crop. The problem can be attributed to a lot of factors that need to be looked into.

Government policies towards the agricultural sector are a major problem. The farmers in the country are not given any incentives to grow what is needed. There is no funding for research and development. The majority of farmers are uneducated and there is no system of educating them of the latest developments in the agricultural field. Most farmers are still using centuries old methods of farming which yield them very little crop as compared to developed countries. The government needs to step up and do what it is supposed to do. Train farmers to the latest methods of agriculture, provide them with incentives and expertise and this will help in reducing the shortage of food. The government also needs to check smuggling of essential food to neighboring countries. When 10-20% of a whole crop is smuggled out of the country of course there will be shortage of food for the people of the country, recently a United Nations vehicle was caught smuggling wheat out of the country. Another major policy flaw is exporting wheat when the crop is harvested and then when there is a shortage importing it at outrageous rates, making in unaffordable for the population.

These practices need to be streamlined and a better system implemented before this existing system crumbles beyond repair and we have a situation similar to many African nations where people would give anything for a little food.
Children collecting wheat dropped by the harvesting machine so they can have some food at night.