How do we pay for our food?

PAKISTAN is one of the most agriculturally endowed countries, yet we cannot feed ourselves, let alone aspire to be counted among the world’s major food exporters. Our governance system and successive economic policies, including agricultural ones, have led us to a dead end, with total exports of only $30 billion to offset the about $80bn in goods we imported in the financial year 2021-22. Those imports included over $9.0bn in foodstuffs, even as we struggled to contain our balance-of-payments crisis. The question is, where do we go from here, as we have to pay back tens of billions of dollars over the next three years? The war in Ukraine and, prior to it, Covid-19 have changed the dynamics of global food markets, affecting all nations, rich and poor alike. Pakistan this year also suffered the added misfortune of exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, which brought large swathes of plains and farmlands under water, rendering them incapable of producing food. According to reliable data, over 15 million acres of land — which accounts for about 40 per cent of arable soil — had suffered from waterlogging and salinity prior to the recent rains. The monsoon deluge only worsened the waterlogging and salinity problem. As a result of the rains, the water table in Sindh is now dangerously high — in some areas, people cannot even find dry spaces in graveyards to bury their dead. The problem is particularly severe in irrigated areas, where farmers are now unable to plant wheat or other winter crops. This warrants an urgent and radically new approach towards the drainage infrastructure if the country hopes to simply sustain its food production capacity.