Highlighting the importance of food security and nutrition, health and food experts have emphasised the need for spreading awareness of the concept of food security, saying that the notion is not fully understood.
They expressed these views at a consultative seminar on nutritional aspects of food security in Pakistan organised by the World Food Programme (WFP) at a local hotel on Thursday.
Adviser to the Sindh chief minister Dr Kaiser Bengali was the chief guest.
Speaking at the seminar, Dr Bengali said that there was a need for ensuring food security and at the same time providing nutrition and not just the provision of staples.
He said that the required norms and values needed to be observed in the consumption of food in order to protect the nutritional aspect. He also appreciated the efforts being put in to raise awareness regarding the judicious use of food while ensuring the nutritional aspects as well.
Wolfgang Herbinger, the WFP representative, termed food security as the base for nutrition. He was of the view that in many cases the notion of food security was not fully understood and as such there was a need for raising awareness in this respect.
Mr Herbinger pointed out that behavioural change was critical for any food security programme. However, if there was no baseline of food provision or the means to purchase the basic food requirement, nutrition outcomes would become very difficult to meet, he said.
Dr Baseer Achakzai spoke of the enhanced nutrition programme for mothers and children. He said that there was a role of provinces as well as all stakeholders in this regard. Food supplements could be used for addressing micronutrient deficiency.
Dr Ayesha Khan, a nutritionist, said nutrition was divided into macronutrients and micronutrients where both must be addressed to alleviate malnutrition.
She said that malnutrition must also be addressed in a life-cycle approach and food supplementation, diversification, food fortification and bio-fortification were the various solutions for addressing the malnutrition.
Dr Ayesha said that fruit and fresh vegetables were very important food groups and the very low level of consumption of this food group in Pakistan was responsible for micronutrient deficiency.
She said that for better education outcomes and micronutrient deficiency, a morning fortified biscuit and milk could be an effective solution.
There should also be nutrient conservation by not soaking vegetables too much, not cutting them prior to cooking in small pieces and not frying. These conservation measures could lead to better nutrition outcomes, she said.
Dr Romaina Iqbal of the Aga Khan University mentioned that along with under-nutrition, over-nutrition was also a problem. In urban areas in the last decade there had been a sharp rise in this problem, Dr Romaina said.
There was a lot of focus on under nutrition, but there was also a need to look into over-nutrition aspects like obesity and overweight, she added.
Dr Noor Khan said that a salt iodization programme was ongoing in 97 districts of the country whereas coverage needed to be expanded to all areas of Balochistan.
Ms Sarita Neupane of Unicef said that health and nutrition were increasingly being viewed as divergent policy domains which were inherently interlinked.
She said that the ministry of health also treated nutrition relatively independently and had established nutrition wings at the provinces as well as the Planning Commission also had a separate section for nutrition.
The WFP, Unicef and WHO were working together in the field of nutrition at the community level, Dr Sarita said.
Dr Inamul Haq of the World Bank said the World Bank was working to develop a PC-1 for nutrition based on the principles of achievable priorities, firmly within the mandate of the health sector and advocacy for those activities that fall outside the health sector.
He said that the PC-1 envisioned creating structures in the health departments, linking micronutrient initiatives with integrating nutritionists within the system, effective monitoring and leaving interventions that simply do not work.