Wheat crisis looming

As the country enters a stage of severe political crisis, the sword of a wheat shortage is poised to fall

This isn’t Pakistan’s first rodeo concerning shortages of critical commodities essential to sustaining a stable economy, in this case wheat. These shortages are addressed through imports at the expense of the taxpayers due to basic mismanagement and inability to make decisions addressing future concerns. We might be in for another episode. 

This year doesn’t seem to bode well for the country either, and we’re not really having a good start. The active political strife, rising global commodity prices, climate change and now to cap it all off we might be facing a wheat shortage in the upcoming months which builds on the already long list of issues.

Wheat is absolutely critical for any economy, it’s essentially the fuel that keeps people going and in turn the economy going. We only need to look at Africa and realise the absolute importance of wheat in a country’s food security. Shortages have the potential to quickly turn into crises. 

It should be categorised as a top priority item considering the fact that Pakistan has a huge middle class population that spends a significant portion of their earnings on food (i.e flour). An increase in price of a critical commodity stokes inflation and reduces an individual’s residual income to be spent elsewhere, essentially having an adverse impact on the whole economy.

 

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Asad Ullah Kamran
Asad Ullah Kamran
The author is a staff member and can be reached at [email protected]

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