Malnutrition costs Pakistan $7.6 billion every year: Experts

News Desk

Islamabad: Malnutrition costs Pakistan $7.6 billion every year due to the lost labor, health care expenses, and lower productivity of human capital, revealed experts at a seminar held in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The experts said Pakistan is facing serious challenges of malnutrition and food insecurity and the climate crisis and recent flooding have created further threats to deteriorate the situation. They were addressing an event organized by Harvest Plus and AGAHE in Islamabad.

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Member Dr Imtiaz Hussain said wheat constitutes over 70 per cent of the diet of common country men, adding that biofortification of wheat is the most suitable, cost-effective, and sustainable strategy for addressing the Zinc deficiency. The government of Pakistan has included biofortification as a part of its strategies to address malnutrition in the country, he added.

He informed that with the support of HarvestPlus, federal and provincial wheat programs have developed three wheat varieties which are Zincol 2016, Akbar 2019, and Nawab 2021. Millions of farmers are cultivating these varieties due to their characteristics of better yield, resistance against diseases, and high zinc nutrition, he added.

There are more wheat varieties in the pipeline, which may help in addressing the widespread zinc deficiency in Pakistan, he informed the participants.

Advisor at HarvestPlus Pakistan Munawar Hussain said that a warming climate is a direct nutritional threat to the billions of smallholder farmers who rely on staple food crops for much of their diet.Hussain said that as per the World Bank report, the rising temperature may cause 3-17 per cent depletion of protein and nutrient content of crops, especially iron and zinc. The crops may lose 8-10 per cent yield with the rising temperature.

The HarvestPlus advisor added that Biofortification increases the level of micronutrients in many crops that are likely to lose nutritional value due to rising CO2 and temperature levels.

It is encouraging that zinc biofortified wheat varieties are now becoming popular in Pakistan, he added. The zinc wheat grain harvested in 2022 reached more than 7 million people and it is further growing. AGAHE CEO Mubarak Ali requested the media to play their due role in raising awareness among farmers and other value chain actors about the significance of the biofortification of wheat in addressing zinc deficiency.

The Way Forward

PARC) Member Dr Imtiaz Hussain said that increasing production, awareness, and supply of biofortified zinc wheat and other nutrient dense crops can help to address the challenges of malnutrition. He stressed the need of building the capacity of wheat value chain actors in the production, processing, and marketing of biofortified seeds, grains, and food products.

Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai informed the participants that we are raising awareness among farmers and wheat value chain actors about the significance of biofortified zinc wheat varieties to increase availability of biofortified zinc grain and foods.