Status of Population Growth and Food Sustainability in Pakistan

Background/Objective: The study was attempted to investigate the status and growth performance of population and food supply in Pakistan, during 1997-2016. Methods/Statistical Analyses: The data were collected from secondary sources, like Economic Survey of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan and Food and Agriculture Organization. The study work was conducted on twenty years of data on country’s population and food availability (rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane, bajra/ millet, jawar/sorghum, rapeseed and mustard, gram, and barley), while determining the magnitude of their growth rate. Findings: The results show that overall population growth has been declining during 1997-16; but the female population growth was higher than male. On the other hands, the results further reveal that the Maize and Sugarcane crops had positive growth, where Rice, Jawar, and Bajra had lower growth performance during the time period. On average rice was grown by 5 percent in the country, while in last five years period (2012-16) its production declined by -0.25 percent, which might be due to the effect of climatic change. Although the wheat crop in last 10 year has a positive growth rate of about 2 percent. It was also estimated that food grains have been increasing almost at the same rate as the population is growing in the country. Applications/Improvements: In order to avoid or prevent forthcoming food conflicts in the country. It is suggested that government has to introduce new technology; efficient use of irrigation; agriculture credit provision; and sustainable agriculture practices, this all will support to increase the food production.