Amid persistent currency depreciation and entrenched inefficiencies in the food system, Pakistan is teetering on the edge of a full-blown nutritional crisis.
The latest global food security report, authored by leading UN agencies, casts a harsh spotlight on Pakistan’s worsening hunger metrics—where food price inflation continues to outstrip income growth, shrinking household access to even the most basic diet. Vulnerable populations—particularly rural families, women, and children—are bearing the brunt of this slow-burning catastrophe. While global hunger has seen fractional improvements, Pakistan’s situation reveals a distressing contrast: rising food costs, high child malnutrition, and a widening gap between necessity and affordability.
Pakistan remains ensnared among the nations most bruised by the international surge in food-related prices. Between 2021 and 2024, the nation saw exponential hikes in the cost of basic food items—wheat and cooking oil being emblematic of this hardship.
This food-driven inflation has jeopardized nutritional access, rendering wholesome diets unattainable for swathes of the populace, and has intensified already critical levels of child malnourishment. A comprehensive UN-led dossier—The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025, co-authored by FAO, UNICEF, WFP, IFAD, and WHO—notes that although global hunger has nudged downward slightly, food insecurity continues to fester across low and lower-middle-income brackets.
Within this framework, Pakistan is flagged for its uniquely steep food price trajectory—outpacing general inflation metrics—resulting in a constricted household buying capacity and an alarming erosion in dietary breadth. The period from 2021 through 2024 marked Pakistan—alongside Nigeria and Mexico—as enduring the most jarring upswings in prices for carbohydrate-rich staples and cooking oils, both cornerstones in subsistence-level diets. These price tremors, often seasonal and sometimes sudden, destabilized food affordability, especially for impoverished demographics.
In consequence, the accessibility of nutritionally sound diets has undergone significant deterioration. Globally, the population unable to afford such diets shrank marginally—from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.60 billion in 2024. However, for lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), excluding India, the figure actually swelled—from 791 million to 869 million over the same period.
In Pakistan, the brunt of this inflationary burden has disproportionately weighed down on the economically vulnerable—especially women and those in agrarian hinterlands—deepening socioeconomic fissures and reducing meal variety to bare sustenance. Pakistan finds itself grappling with compounded vulnerabilities—currency debasement and long-standing fissures in its agrifood architecture—which have steadily corroded the affordability of nourishment for its populace.
The report underscores that the trajectory of food prices in Pakistan has outpaced the broader inflation arc, amplifying the already formidable specter of food insecurity. A stark correlation emerges: every 10% surge in food costs aligns with an estimated 4.8% to 6.1% uptick in acute malnutrition—or “wasting”—among children under five, a trend that continues to afflict the country where both wasting and stunting are persistently elevated.
Globally, the average cost of a nutritionally adequate diet climbed to $4.46 per person per day in 2024, ascending from $4.01 in 2022. In Asia, the regional average hovered close at $4.43. For millions in Pakistan, where earnings remain stagnant and inflation remains voracious, this threshold is financially unscalable. Ironically, even agrarian communities—ostensibly shielded by proximity to food production—are adversely affected, as a majority of rural households are net purchasers rather than producers of food.
The report delineates that rural populations remain more susceptible to food insecurity than their urban counterparts—an imbalance Pakistan epitomizes. In 2024, 32% of rural inhabitants globally faced food insecurity, in contrast to 24% among urban dwellers. Women, entrenched in systemic income inequality, compounded caregiving obligations, and fragile access to welfare scaffolds, endure a disproportionate burden.
Child undernutrition looms as a grim national concern. While South Asia has eked out modest gains in nutritional metrics, Pakistan continues to post troubling rates of wasting among children—driven by both economic fragility and the inaccessibility of wholesome diets.
Worldwide, the prevalence of child wasting was estimated at 6.6% in 2024. Exclusive breastfeeding rates fared slightly better, rising from 37% in 2012 to 47.8% by 2023. Yet, Pakistan trails behind on both counts, highlighting a persistent lapse in health and nutrition systems.
The regional panorama presents a patchwork of progress and regress. India has buttressed food security via expansive subsidies and an entrenched public distribution system. Bangladesh has tamed food inflation more effectively, while Afghanistan languishes under the weight of protracted conflict, humanitarian breakdown, and economic disintegration.
Globally, despite minor improvements, the landscape remains grim. An estimated 673 million individuals—8.2% of the global populace—suffered from undernourishment in 2024, a modest decline from 8.5% in 2023. Alarmingly, roughly 2.3 billion people—equating to 28% of humanity—grappled with either moderate or severe food insecurity. Although portions of Latin America and Asia show signs of improvement, the crisis deepens across Africa and Western Asia, enveloping nations like Pakistan in its wake.
The report issues an unequivocal warning: without urgent, transformative policy realignment, the world is poised to fall short of the Sustainable Development Goal 2—Zero Hunger—by 2030. Projections suggest that by the decade’s end, 512 million individuals will remain chronically underfed, nearly 60% of whom will reside in Africa. Pakistan, unless it reverses the tide of inflation, poverty, and systemic weaknesses, risks derailing its national progress and undermining global hunger eradication ambitions.
UN agencies call for an integrated and forceful policy mosaic—temporary tax reprieves on essential foods, inflation-adjusted safety nets, targeted investment in durable and equitable food systems, streamlined trade logistics, and bolstered transparency across markets. For Pakistan, seamless coordination between fiscal, monetary, and social policy spheres is imperative to shield its most vulnerable citizens and inoculate against future food shocks.
The overarching conclusion is sobering: global food price inflation is now among the most urgent threats to human security. For countries like Pakistan, inaction will not merely prolong hardship—it may calcify a humanitarian crisis with enduring impacts on health and economic stability.
The warnings are unambiguous: Pakistan’s path toward economic and social stability will remain blocked unless food system fragilities are urgently addressed. As the cost of a healthy diet surges and income stagnation persists, more households will descend into food insecurity, triggering long-term consequences for public health, child development, and national productivity. Without targeted fiscal relief, smarter safety nets, and investment in resilient agrifood infrastructure, the country risks derailing its development goals and contributing to the global shortfall in achieving Zero Hunger by 2030. Pakistan must act—decisively, inclusively, and immediately—to prevent its hunger crisis from becoming an irreversible tragedy.