From Pakistan Poultry Association:

• In our country per capita consumption of (poultry) meat is only 7 kilo grams and 65-70 eggs annually. Whereas developed world is consuming about 40 kilo grams meat and over 300 eggs per capita per year.

http://www.pakistanpoultryassociationnz.pk/statistic-of-ppa/

35% of what #Indians eat today is of `foreign' origin. #India #food http://toi.in/AefC9b57 via @timesofindia

Most of us know exotic new veggies and grains like kale and quinoa are "imported" but even ordinary staples like potato, onion, tomato and chilli came from elsewhere, reports Subodh Varma.
A study of 177 countries by scientists from the International Center of Tropical Agriculture has found that in India, more than a third of all food items derived from plants -grains, vegetables, fruits, spices, oils, sugar etc. -originated and developed elsewhere, and came to this subcontinent by trade or migration over centuries.

In terms of calorific value, such `foreign' origin foods make up 45 per cent of the national food production. It's not just India. At the global level, 66 per cent of calories consumed are derived from foreign origin foods on an average as was 71 per cent of production.
Onions and wheat have their origins in West Asia, potatoes and tomatoes came from South America, while mustard seeds came from the Mediterranean. Likewise, chillies came to India from Central America, while garlic and apples found their way from Central Asia.
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#India tomato shortage causes #curry crisis with food #inflation rising under #Modi #BJP

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/29/india-to...


At Pimpalgaon Basant, a village in western India, there is not a single cloud in the sky. The last time it rained was days ago, and that was only for an hour. Without rain, the Pimpalgaon tomato market, said to be the biggest in Asia, is almost empty.

“We have around 75% fewer tomatoes than normal,” says Sheik Tanveer, who works at the market. “Normally, you can buy tomatoes wholesale for 10 rupees [10p] a kilo here – now you’ll get about 150g for that.”

Tomato prices across India have, on average, doubled since April, causing consternation across the country. A long drought, followed by an early monsoon has disturbed the harvest cycle, and scarcity has pushed up prices. Other vegetables and lentils are also more expensive this year.

Tomatoes are a staple in Indian cuisine, used as a base for cooking vegetables, curries and dal. The rising cost makes a huge difference to family budgets and to the farmers who rely on steady sales for their income.

Many restaurants have dropped tomato-based dishes from their menus, while the sale of processed tomato sauces and ketchup has seen a 40% increase, according to Assocham, a national trade association.

Popat Khaire, a farmer from Pimpalgaon, says he’s never seen such a bad harvest. “It’s so hot. None of the farmers have any [tomatoes] to sell.”

Khaire usually gets good rates for his tomatoes, but he’s suffered huge losses this year. “The fields are ready, the saplings are ready, I am just waiting for the rain to come,” he says.

Santosh Zute, also a farmer, says: “The tomatoes that were planted have all come out small and black. You can’t eat them. So now we’re all sitting at home with our tomato seed. I’m losing around 5,000 rupees a day because of this.”

In India, the rise and fall of governments has been linked to the price of vegetables. High onion prices were thought to have been the deciding factor in the 1998 state elections in Delhi and Rajasthan.

This month, Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, chaired a meeting with cabinet ministers to find ways to reduce tomato prices. Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal’s chief minister, set up an emergency taskforce to address the tomato crisis.

While drought has slowed production in west India, heavy rains and floods have ruined the crop in the south. In Haveri, a region in the southern state of Karnataka, Shrenik Raj, a tomato farmer, says he has lost 600,000 rupees since the beginning of the year. “It was terribly hot, so the plants couldn’t grow. I’ve lost all my crop. I could sell tomatoes for a good price at the market now, but I don’t have any to sell,” he says.

At the beginning of the year, a bumper crop caused tomato prices in Haveri to fall dramatically, leading to huge protests from tomato farmers. “Wholesalers were offering us 50 paise [0.5p] or 1 rupee a kilo. The normal rate is 40 rupees. When the farmers heard about those prices, they just started dumping tomatoes in protest. Many didn’t bother to pick them; they just left them in the fields. Now, there is nothing to sell.”


India's drought migrants head to cities in desperate search for water
Read more
In India’s cities, tomato sellers are struggling to earn decent money. At Vegetable Alley in Mumbai, Sachin Bhad has to haggle with customers. “Tomatoes are selling for 50-60 rupees a kilo this week. Last week it had risen to 80 rupees – that’s the highest it has ever been,” he says. “This week, we’ve got tomatoes from Punjab, so the prices have come down a bit, but the stock we’re getting is not good and people aren’t buying.

“Two months ago, I used to earn 1,000 rupees a day – now I’m barely making 500. I spend all day explaining why tomato prices are so high.”

Smita Shah, one of Bhad’s customers, wants to buy half a kilo of tomatoes. “I used to buy a kilo two or three times a week. Now I buy 250g or 500g,” she says.

According to a spokesman of the market, the rates of vegetables at the Ramzan/Sasta Bazaars of Islamabad are as under:

Potato per kilogram is Rs 27, Potato Store Rs 23, Onion Rs 26, Tomato Rs 32, Ginger Rs 80, Garlic desi Rs 175, Garlic (China) Rs 175, Lemon desi Rs 98, Lady Finger Rs 50, Pumpkin Rs 46, Brinjal Rs 34, Peas Rs 118, Farsh Bean Rs 82, Tanda Walaiti Rs 55, Tanda desi Rs 64, Cucumber Rs 27, Capsicum Rs 45/32, Green Chilli Rs 38, Cauliflower Rs 68/38, Cabbage Rs 40, Bitter gourd Rs 37, Green Zucchini Rs 40, Spinach Rs 34, Turnip Rs 45, Maroo Rs 48, Yam Rs 55, Carrot Rs 55, Chicken Rs 139 per kg and Egg per dozen Rs 78.

Likewise, he said that rates of fruits per kilogram of high and medium quality in Sasta Bazaars are as follows: Apple Kala Kulo Rs 145/125, Apple White Rs 95/65, Apple Ambri Rs 82/56, Apple China Rs 200/180, Apple New Zealand Rs 256/232, Banana Pak Rs 130/85, Banana Ind Rs 165/135, Pear China Rs 165, Apricot Swat Rs 105/85, Apricot Kabli Rs 140/125, Melon desi Rs 30/22, White Melon Rs 28/20, Water Melon Rs 20/15, Peach Rs 95/65, Mango Sundhari Rs 110/85, Mango Maldeh Rs 62/45, Mango Almas Rs 47/35, Mango langra Rs 65/45, Mango Chaunsa White Rs 105/85, Mango Dosari Rs 76/50, Mango Desi Rs 55/35, Plum Rs 120/90, Garma Rs 58/35 and Mango Ratool Rs 138/95.

The spokesman has asked all the people to follow this list and inform authorities at 051-4867762 in case of any complaint against shopkeepers.

http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/markets/306836-fruits-vegetables-...

Survey: #India is the cheapest place to live in the world, cheaper than neighbors #Nepal and #Pakistan

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-cheapest-place-t...

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=India

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Pak...

"In India, if you want quality, you will be paying high prices. It very much depends on who you are. You have to settle for many compromises to take advantage of the cheap prices."

Meanwhile, many Indians outside cities have felt the purchasing power of the rupee depreciate as inflation has been ongoing. The Indian government is now trying to keep inflation low.

And the rural state of Bihar in the north-east of India is one of the poorest regions in the whole of south Asia, according to a study by Oxford University.

India Gets Chana Dal Crisis Wrong - Subsidise People, Not Products

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/07/01/india-gets-chana...


Indian agriculture is having one of those passing problems at present, the prices of certain foods are rising well outside usual ranges. India’s a country that has still great swathes of absolute poverty, such price rises cause real suffering. Thus something should be done. But it’s important that the right thing be done rather than the wrong. India’s welfare system in general is moving, slowly enough, to using the right methods. But what’s happening here over chana dal and other pulses is showing us the wrong way to do it. The correct answer is to be subsidising people, not specific products. This is different from but allied to Amartya Sen’s point that modern famines don’t happen because of a lack of food but because of a lack of purchasing power. In the face of these changing prices we want to boost the purchasing power of the poor, not produce subsidised portions of those now more expensive foods.

Firstly, we simply don’t want to be doing these things through something as cumbersome as a bureaucracy. Especially not something as cumbersome as the Indian bureaucracy. We would very much prefer whatever aid we provide to be available quickly. It’s very much easier to move money around than it is food so that’s what we should be doing. As when we deal with famine itself (please note, we are not talking about famine in India at present, not at all, just price rises). Send in money so that people can purchase the food which exists rather than sending in food itself. It’s really much, much, quicker.

The government decided to import 7,500 tonnes of chana and masoor dal in the coming days to boost domestic supply and curb prices. The pulses issue was discussed in detail in the meeting of Management Committee of Price Stabilisation Fund, chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande here.

We also have another manner of managing these things. Those markets – if the domestic price of these pulses is rising above the world price then importers will import them. And again we come back to that Sen point – there must be effective demand at those higher prices. Which is why we just give money to poor people.

Drought has shrunk the total output of chana dal production by 40-45% this year, traders said. It has seen doubling of its wholesale rate this year over the same period in 2015 and this trend will have a telling effect on besan (made from chana dal) sweets this festive season.

Parched Land. Farmer #Suicides. Dead Animals. Forced Migration: #Drought Is Crippling Rural #India http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/india-drought-bundelkhand_us_57... … via @TheWorldPost

TIKAMGARH DISTRICT, India — For years, Lakshman Pal, 28, planted wheat and tended to his small field here. Each season, he hoped for rain. He looked up at the sky and waited for the showers that normally came. But for the past two years, they’ve hardly come at all. His crops eventually withered and died, crumbling to dust.

In early May, Pal returned from a spell of work in the distant state of Haryana, where he earned 250 rupees, or about $3.70, a day toiling long hours as a laborer. Fifteen other members of his family also migrated to various cities, searching for work and leaving behind women, children, the elderly and a handful of younger men to tend to the land. Pal borrowed money from the bank and a local moneylender to pay for medical treatment for his mother, who has cancer, and he was now deep in debt.

Back in Khakron, his village, Pal found himself not only in debt, but also with no water for his fields, no crops to harvest, no food for his family, no money for his mother’s treatment. He awoke one morning in mid-May, before dawn, and killed himself in his field.

Life is precarious in Bundelkhand, a vast rural landscape in north-central India that I drove through on a weeklong trip for The WorldPost in late May. The region, which consists of over 27,000 square miles across the states Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, is one of India’s poorest areas, populated mostly by poverty-stricken farmers living in rudimentary villages. And now, it’s suffocating under an intense drought that’s affected a staggering 330 million people nationwide. 

As the crisis deepens, the country that celebrated the 1960s agricultural revolution and a resulting boom in production of food grains is now seeing its farmers dying in debt and despair. In many cases, farmers accrue debt from loans for seeds, fertilizers and equipment. And the debt can carry down to their children and grandchildren. 

Stories like Pal’s are repeated with frightening regularity all over the country. More than 2,200 farmers reportedly died by suicide in just one state — Madhya Pradesh — between April and October of last year, and more than 12,000 reportedly killed themselves across the country in 2014.

Severe dry spells have become much more common in Bundelkhand in recent years, a consequence of both climate change and the lack of a robust irrigation system, turning this historically dry area into a parched and barren land. Groundwater reservoirs have been dangerously depleted, and agriculture has stagnated. Temperatures are consistently over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes top 115. Since the early 2000s, droughts have become worse and the annual monsoon, which is critical for agriculture, has become erratic. The drought was especially bad from 2003 to 2010. In 2011, the region experienced much higher rainfall — in some districts, more than 500 percent above normal — and flooding was widespread. Disappointing monsoons in 2012 and 2013 gave way to drought again in 2014. It hasn’t abated, and the network of lakes, rivers and wells, which had always supported the people, have gone almost completely dry.

How food inflation has removed #dal, #potato & #tomato from the plate of aam aadmi in #Modi's #India via @indiacom

Last year it was onion that made the middle-class cry. This year soaring price of tomatoes, potatoes and pulses have made the life of aam aadmi difficult.

http://www.india.com/business/triple-price-hike-how-food-inflation-...


Last year it was onion that made the middle-class cry. This year soaring price of tomatoes, potatoes and pulses have made the life of aam aadmi difficult. Despite government’s efforts to control the prices of essential commodities, a huge increase in the cost of tomatoes, potatoes, arhar dal and urad dal has largely hit the common man of the country.
According to the Wholesale Price Index or WPI data released on Tuesday, vegetable inflation rose sharply from 2.21 per cent in April to 12.94 per cent the next month. The inflation level at highest in 19 months. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held a high level meeting to fix the strategy to keep prices in check which was attended by Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. (ALSO READ: Pulses costlier due to poor rainfall, reduced imports: Ram Vilas Paswan)



Rising Inflation: The rising prices of vegetables are major concern. Due to crop damage, Tomato prices have doubled to an average Rs. 80 a kilogram across the country. In Hyderabad, tomatoes are being sold at Rs 100 per kilogram. Potato prices are up to almost Rs 20 per kilogram. Drought situation is several parts of the India, production of pulses were badly hit last year. Country’s pulses production is estimated to be 17.06 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year, while the demand of pulses in India is pegged at 23.5 tonnes.

According to data published by the department of consumer affairs and the National Horticulture Board, prices of tomatoes have increased by 100-200 per cent in most cities between April and June this year. Crop damage in West Bengal and a dip in production have risen the prices of potatoes in the country.

Price rise of pulses: Pulses inflation has remained in double digits since January 2015. Arhar dal is currently costing as much as Rs 170 per kilogram. Urad dal is selling for as high as Rs 196 per kilogram. “In the last two years, arhar dal prices have doubled and the cost of urad has increased by around 120 per cent. Even the price of chana dal, which is produced in large quantities and is usually unaffected by inflation, has risen 85% in this period, in Delhi,” a Times of India report said.
Following are today’s pulses rates (in Rs per quintal): Urad Rs 10,800-12,300, Urad Chilka (local) Rs 11,100-11,200, Urad best Rs 11,200-11,700, Dhoya Rs 11,600-11,900, Moong Rs 6,200-6,800, Dal Moong Chilka local Rs 6,750-7,150, Moong Dhoya local Rs 7,150-7,650 and best quality Rs 7,650-7,850. Masoor small Rs 6,050-6,350, bold Rs 6,100-6,400, Dal Masoor local Rs 6,600-7,100, best quality Rs 6,700-7,200, Malka local Rs 7,000-7,300, best Rs 7,100-7,400, Moth Rs 5,500-5,900, Arhar Rs 9,200, Dal Arhar Dara Rs 12,100-13,800.
Gram Rs 7,000-7,500, Gram dal (local) Rs 7,150-7,450, best quality Rs 7,600-7,700, Besan (35 kg), Shakti Bhog Rs 3,100,Rajdhani Rs 3,100, Rajma Chitra Rs 5,600-6,950, Kabuli Gram small Rs 8,000-9,500, Dabra Rs 2,700-2,800, Imported Rs 4,700-5,100, Lobia Rs 5,400-5,600, Peas white Rs 3,400-3,425 and green Rs 3,600-3,700.

#Pakistan Inflation hit 13-year low in FY16 but price rises affect tomatoes (up 61%) potatoes (up 45.5%) in #Ramadan

http://www.dawn.com/news/1268504/inflation-hit-13-year-low-in-fy16

Pakistan’s average inflation came in at 2.86 per cent in the just-ended fiscal year, its lowest level in over 13 years, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

Falling oil and commodity prices, a stable rupee and monitoring of prices at both federal and provincial levels were major reasons behind low inflation.

Average inflation stood at 4.53pc in 2014-15, 8.62pc in 2013-14 and 7.36pc in 2012-13.

Inflation measured through the consumer price index (CPI) — the indicator that tracks prices of 481 commodities every month in the country’s urban centres — inched up to 3.19pc in June from 3.17pc in May.

A finance ministry report said prudent fiscal and monetary policies and a few other factors helped in moderating the headline inflation and other inflationary indicators, ie core inflation, food inflation, sensitive price indicator (SPI) and wholesale price index (WPI).

It said the government had also passed on the benefits of lower oil prices to domestic consumers, which helped stabilise prices of commodities included in the CPI basket.

Food inflation, which has 37pc weight in CPI basket, was 2.3pc in June as compared to 3.2pc in the same month of the last year.

This decline in food inflation was the outcome of a 1.82pc fall in prices of perishable food items.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation rose 1.4pc in June, mainly because of a 7.87pc increase in prices of perishable products and 0.19pc in non-perishable products.

The food items whose prices increased included tomatoes (61pc), potatoes (45.5pc), eggs (8.5pc), fresh vegetables (5.9pc), gram whole (5.7pc), fresh fruits (2.5pc), besan (2.4pc), pulse gram (2.2pc), and rice (1.4pc).

Core inflation, measured by excluding volatile food and energy prices, was recorded at 4.6pc in June 2016, slightly up 0.1pc from the previous month. Falling inflation has also encouraged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to lower its key interest rate at a 42-year low of 5.75pc.

Core inflation has remained subdued since November last year because of a tighter monetary policy and reduction in food and fuel prices.

The finance ministry report said a 6.26pc decline in government sector borrowing during July-March 2015-16 has resulted in low core inflation. The retirement of Rs534.6 billion by the government to the SBP during the period under review also helped in lowering core inflation.

The non-food inflation was 3.8pc during the period under review as compared to 3.9pc in the previous month.

Among the non-food group, education index increased by 0.18pc and health by 0.13pc in June as compared to the previous month. The highest increase of 4.24pc was witnessed in the index of alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

Average inflation measured through the SPI rose 1.31pc in July-June 2015-16, while WPI was negative 1.05pc.

Lower WPI reflects less demand for domestic commodities, mainly because of low purchasing power. The entrance of the manufacturing sector into a negative growth indicates deflation in the economy.

Excerpts of World Bank Report "Making Growth Matter" released November, 2016:

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/935241478612633044/pdf/10...

The government recently set a new national poverty line that identifies 29.5 percent
of Pakistanis as poor (using the latest available data from FY14). By back casting
this line, the poverty rate in FY02 would have been about 64.3 percent. This means
that poverty has more than halved between FY02 and FY14, even according to this
new and higher metric. The new poverty line was introduced in April 2016 precisely
because of Pakistan's success in reducing poverty over the last decade and a half.
Using the old national poverty line, set in 2001, the percentage of people living in
poverty fell from 34.7 percent in FY02 to 9.3 percent in FY14—a fall of more than
75 percent. Other sources of data corroborate this decline—ownership of assets and
dietary diversity also increased over this period. For example, in the bottom income
quintile, motorcycle ownership increased from 2 to 18 percent between FY02 and
FY14. See Section C1.

When poverty declines, it usually coincides with other gains in household welfare.
Throughout the period under review, Pakistan saw substantial gains in welfare,
including the ownership of assets, the quality of housing and an increase in school
enrollment, particularly for girls. First, the ownership of relatively more expensive
assets increased even among the poorest. In the bottom quintile, the ownership of
motorcycles increased from 2 to 18 percent, televisions from 20 to 36 percent and
refrigerators from 5 to 14 percent (see Figure 29). In contrast, there was a decline
in the ownership of cheaper assets like bicycles and radios. Housing quality in the
bottom quintile also showed an improvement. The number of homes constructed
with bricks or blocks increased while mud (katcha) homes decreased. Homes with a
flushing toilet almost doubled in the bottom quintile, from about 24 percent in
FY02 to 49 percent in FY14 (see Figure 30).

Changes in consumption patterns over time were also consistent with the poverty
decline. It is well-known that increases in income are strongly associated with
households spending less of their budget on food, and more on non-food items
(Engel’s law). In Pakistan, the 25 percentage point decline in poverty between FY02
and FY14 was associated with a 10 percentage point reduction in the share of
expenditure devoted to food (see Figure 31).

In Pakistan, the reduction in poverty led to an increase in dietary diversity for all
income groups. For the poorest, the share of expenditure devoted to milk and milk
products, chicken, eggs and fish rose, as did the share devoted to vegetables and
fruits. In contrast, the share of cereals and pulses, which provide the cheapest 

calories, declined steadily between FY02 and FY14. Because foods like chicken,
eggs, vegetables, fruits, and milk and milk products are more expensive than cereals
and pulses, and have lower caloric content, this shift in consumption also increased
the amount that people spent per calorie over time (see Table 12). For the poorest
quintile, expenditure per calorie increased by over 18 percent between FY02 and
FY14.

Overall, this analysis confirms that the decline in poverty exhibited by the 2001
poverty line is quite credible, and that Pakistan has done remarkably well overall in
reducing monetary poverty based on the metric it set some 15 years ago. 
------

... there is now a considerable body of
research suggesting that the link between food availability and nutritional status is
weak, and is mediated by the ambient disease environment and the quality of water
and sanitation.

#Pakistan #inflation eases to 3.70% in December 2016 with steep drop in prices of #chicken, #onions & #tomatoes.

http://timesofoman.com/article/99696/World/Pakistan/Pakistan-inflat...

Pakistan's annual inflation rate eased to 3.70 per cent in December from 3.81 per cent in November, the Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

On a month-on-month basis, prices decreased by 0.68 per cent in December compared with November, the bureau said. 

Average inflation for the July-December period stood at 3.88 per cent, compared with the same period last year.

The steepest rise in year-on-year prices was seen in the prices of gram flour and pulse gram. The steepest drop in year-on-year prices was in the price of onions, tomatoes and chicken. 

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Pakistan becomes third-largest importer of cooking oil

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1302877/high-consumption-pakistan-beco...

KARACHI: Pakistan has become the third largest importer of cooking oil after China and India, a statement said on Saturday.

“The import of crude and refined cooking oil has increased to 2.6 million tons per annum in Pakistan,” Westbury Group Chief Executive Rasheed Jan Mohammad said at a one-day conference on edible oil.

Balance of payments: Current account deficit widens 92% 

Pakistan also imports 2.2 million tons oil seeds every year, he said.

Imports help the country meet around 75% of its domestic needs. The remaining need is met through locally produced banola and mustard oils.

Pakistan imports crude and refined cooking oils (palm and palm olein) mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia and brings in soybean oil from North America and Brazil.

Jan Mohammad said approximately 30% of the import bill is comprised of taxes that traders pay at Pakistan’s sea ports. “The government should rationalise the taxes,” he said.

Dr James Fry, Chairman of LMC International, a research institute of the UK, said fluctuation in production, demand and price of edible oils has a direct link with crude fuel oils in the world. “The production and supply of palm oil would increase in 2017,” he projected.

The statement issued by Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC) quoted speakers at the conference, saying that Pakistan needs to set up one more import terminal at sea ports to keep the flow of goods smooth.

Apparel sector: Govt urged to withdraw duty on cotton yarn import 

They said that Pakistan has so far invested Rs50 billion in import, processing and storage industries of edible oil. They estimated a similar quantum of investment in the years to come. Trade Development Authority of Pakistan Chief Executive SM Muneer said revival of the local economy, increased disposable income, surging demand for cooking oil and rising population have created opportunities for more investment in the edible oil industry in Pakistan.

Zubair Tufail, President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that per-capita consumption of cooking oil in Pakistan is among the highest in the world.

He said Malaysia and Indonesia remained two big sources of import of the oil into the Pakistan. He asked Malaysia and Indonesia to increase investment in the edible oil industry in Pakistan, as they can take benefit of transit trade to Afghanistan and Central Asian countries via Pakistan.

Outstanding bills: Disruption in oil supplies to power plants feared 

Sheikh Amjad Rafique, a speaker at the conference, said Malaysia has imposed taxes on export of oil to Pakistan. “This is a negation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and Malaysia,” he said.

He said the Pakistani government needs to engage with Malaysia to remove this anomaly and exploit full benefit of the agreement in place. 

Korean J Food Sci Anim Resour. 2017; 37(3): 329–341.
Published online 2017 Jun 30. doi: 10.5851/kosfa.2017.37.3.329
PMCID: PMC5516059
An Insight of Meat Industry in Pakistan with Special Reference to Halal Meat: A Comprehensive Review
Muhammad Sohaib* and Faraz Jamil1


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5516059/

In Pakistan, per capita use of meat is around 32 kg as compared to developed world, where per capita meat consumption reached to 93 kg as lead by Australia followed by USA. Accordingly, during the last few years, modern slaughter houses and processing facilities are established in Pakistan. These plants are mainly located across Lahore and Karachi, having capacity to produce processed meat products. Currently, Pakistan meat industry is producing variety of meat products including traditional and western style like kabab, kofta, fillings for samosas, mince products, nuggets, burger patties, sausages, and tender pops etc (Noor, 2015). Moreover, given the increased concern of food safety and a shift to modern meat processing methods, the meat product businesses are experiencing further integration (Kristensen et al., 2014). Furthermore, the size of slaughter houses and meat processing companies has also been raising leading intensification and more variety of meat products. The slaughtering and meat processing technologies for poultry and livestock has seen momentous changes. The conventional techniques of “one knife to kill”, one blade to remove hair/skin and one weighing balance to trade meat” has disappeared significantly in large-scale productions, shifting to mechanized slaughter houses, refined cuts according to consumer demand, chilled-chain distribution and regulated selling of meat and meat products (Troy et al., 2016).

--------

Pakistan per capita meat consumption in 2000 was 11.7 kg that was increased to 13.8 and 14.7 kg in 2006 and 2009, respectively. Additionally, current per capita meat consumption has reached to 32 kg that is further expected to reach 47 kg by 2020 (Table 1). However, urbanization, economic growth, industrialization as well as eating pattern resulting increased per capita meat in the future years that will also generates higher demand for meat and allied products (Chartsbin, 2017). The dietary awareness to population has also played key role in shifting preferences to consume meat and its products. Pakistan having rich traditions and cultural festivities is also adding more demand for meat and meat products during whole year and this demand further rises significantly during festive season. To cope up this growing demand, government as well as meat industry are now concentrating to meet requirements by providing sufficient, healthy and quality produce, both fresh and processed products (GOP, 2016). Furthermore, consumer awareness is pushing meat industry and regulating agencies to keep an eye on quality of meat, safety assurance, animal health and welfare as well as precise traceability (Steinfeld et al., 2006).

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Pakistan second largest Australian pulses importer
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1633998/2-pakistan-2nd-largest-austral...

A three-day visit to Pakistan of a delegation of Australian pulses producers ended on Tuesday during which it explored opportunities for increased trade and production of pulses with Pakistani importers and businesses.

The 13-member delegation from the Pulse Association South East (Pase), Fletcher International, Special One Grain and Full Business Spectrum, was led by the Australian government’s trade and investment commission.

Welcoming the visit, Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson highlighted that Pakistan was Australia’s second largest destination for pulses exports with trade valuing at A$465 million in 2016-17.

“Australia and Pakistan are actively exploring avenues to expand trade and investment, particularly in agribusiness where Australia has world-class expertise.”

India ranks 43rd in the global ranking in average per capita tea consumption with 0.73 kg compared with 7.54 kgs in Turkey, 4.34 kgs in Morocco, 2.74 kgs in United Kingdom and 1.01 kgs in Pakistan.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/tea-board-on-prom...

Per capita consumption of tea
Country Quantity (Per KG)
Turkey 7.54
Morocco 4.34
Ireland 3.22
United Kingdom 2.74
UAE 1.89
Kuwait 1.61
Russia 1.21
Iran 1.07
Pakistan 1.01
India 0.73
Source: Industry, Wikipedia


--------

A massive increase of 35.8 per cent in per capita consumption of tea in Pakistan has been recorded from 2007 to 2016.

According to the current market situation and medium-term outlook, published by the Food and Agriculture (FAO) of the United Nations, Pakistan is among the seven countries where per capita consumption of tea has been increased.

The highest increase was seen in Malawi with 565.2pc, followed by China 128.6pc, Rwanda 110.2pc, Turkey 25.9pc, Indonesia 26.6pc and Libya 39.8pc.

Currently, black tea consumption in Pakistan has been estimated at 1,72,911 tonnes which is expected to increase to 2,50,755 tonnes in 2027, the FAO report projects. This showed in next 10 years, tea consumption will increase by 77,844 tonnes.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1415762

#Pakistan #Poultry Sector Thriving With Annual Production Of 1.02b Broilers. making Pakistan the 11th largest producer of poultry meat. Poultry production in Pakistan is providing direct job opportunities to over 1.5 million people. #chicken #meat https://www.urdupoint.com/en/agriculture/pakistan-poultry-sector-th...


"Pakistan has become the 11th largest poultry producer in the world with a production of 1.02 billion broilers annually whereas current investment in poultry sector is more than Rs 200 billion," according to official documents.

Today, Poultry has been a balancing force to keep check on the prices of mutton and beef, but also serving as backbone of agriculture sector as it consumes over seven million tons of agro- residues.

Pakistan is an ideal country for investment in poultry sector as its meat contributed 30pc of the total meat production in the country.

Poultry sector has shown around 8 to 10pc growth rate annually, which reflected its inherent potential to grow further besides goal oriented policies of Government to promote livestock and poultry sector in the country.

Poultry has contributed 1.4pc of GDP during 2015-16 while its contribution in agriculture and livestock value-added stood at 6.9 pc and 11.7 pc respectively. Its value added at current factor cost has increased from Rs 140.5 billion in 2014-15 to Rs 151.2 billion in 2015-16, showing a record increase of 7.6pc compare to last year.

Dr Aasal Khan, Director Planning and Economics Development told APP on Friday that poultry sector in KP has grown tremendously during last five years in Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

He said large number of people especially in rural areas was associated with poultry sector and special financial incentives for them would help promote this hard earned business to new heights.

Livestock Department KP has chalked out a comprehensive plan to encourage commercial and domestic poultry farming in the province to cater the needs of meat requirement of ever growing population.

He said strengthening of commercial and domestic poultry services was a major component of the new livestock policy 2018 and solid efforts are being made to increase poultry production in the province.

The KP government has accorded high priority to livestock and poultry sectors by focusing on establishment of model poultry farms to promote this business keeping in view of dependence of a large number of people of rural areas on it.

He said thousands of poultry farms were existed in all districts of KP and technical assistance and necessary training would be provided to farmers to bolster poultry production in the province.

Dr Aasal said KP Govt has allocated Rs 2573 million for uplift agriculture, livestock, poultry, fisheries and cooperatives department for 40 projects including 30 ongoing with allocation of Rs 2217.999 million and 10 new costing Rs 355.001 million in budget 2018-19 to further strengthen this key sector.

The new projects including control of livestock diseases, eco-friendly management of fruit flies, database development through information and communication technology in crop reporting service, solarization of agriculture tubewells, establishment of trout villages in Malakand and Hazara divisions would strengthening of poultry services.

He said most of farmers are unaware from where to get veterinary services and suffer great economic losses in case of viral disease outbreak.

Poor marketing and coordination between institutions and poultry owners besides lack of technical know how challenges if addresses, livestock and poultry sector can achieve many laurels in days to come.

He said owing to goal oriented policies of present government, eggs, meat, milk and poultry production had registered substantial increase during last five years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and people are now easily getting these commodities at their doorsteps.

#America had a ‘#chicken in every pot.’ #Pakistan aims for chickens on every plot. Anti-poverty premise is simple: Provide five hens and one rooster to several million poor families, especially rural women, so they can earn income at home by selling #eggs https://wapo.st/2ErMrFs?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.1a3aaf119ff2

The high-pitched cheeping of a thousand newborn chicks fills the humid room. Technicians pluck them from incubation trays, inject them with a vaccine against Newcastle disease, discard those with deformities and pop the rest into plastic containers, where they will travel in heated trucks to government farms and be raised to adulthood.

This process, repeated twice a week at the poultry research center in Punjab province, is the first step in a national anti-poverty program announced Nov. 29 by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The premise is simple: Provide five hens and one rooster to several million poor families, especially rural women, so they can earn income at home by selling eggs. 

But Pakistan is also facing dire macroeconomic and fiscal crises, with the rupee plummeting against the dollar and its foreign debt burden soaring out of control. Khan, who swore as a candidate that he would never go begging abroad, has already been forced to borrow billions from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere and to negotiate for debt relief from the International Monetary Fund.

With such weighty issues to tackle, the backyard poultry project, an idea Khan borrowed from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has been met with widespread derision. Headlines and pun-filled tweets have mocked the premier as throwing “chicken feed” at serious problems. One editorial cartoon showed a heavy wooden cart, labeled “the economy,” being pulled uphill by a struggling hen.

But at the Poultry Research Institute, which has spent years trying to develop the perfect backyard chicken, director Abdul Rehman firmly believes that the project can make a critical difference in the health and livelihood of millions of poor Pakistanis.

“In Pakistan, 44 percent of children under age 5 have stunted growth due to nutritional deficiency,” Rehman said. “Our high infant mortality rate is associated with malnutrition in mothers. These eggs can add a healthy ingredient to their diets.”

#America had a ‘#chicken in every pot.’ #Pakistan aims for chickens on every plot. Anti-poverty premise is simple: Provide five hens and one rooster to several million poor families, especially rural women, so they can earn income at home by selling https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-us-had-a-chic...

By crossing hardy, hand-raised domestic chickens — known as “desi,” or native, poultry — with breeds from Egypt and Australia and with Rhode Island reds, the center has developed birds with the necessary qualities for backyard life: tough, omnivorous, ­disease-resistant and agile.

“They can live in trees, in boxes or under people’s stairs,” Rehman said. “They can eat kitchen scraps instead of expensive feed, and they can outrun predators like cats and foxes.”

In contrast with the skeptics, many poor and working-class Pakistanis said they were excited to hear about the project and eager to sign up. Even more-affluent families said they appreciated Khan’s continued focus on the plight of the poor, which he vowed to prioritize during his campaign.

“People may laugh at the prime minister over this, but I laugh at them. It is a wonderful idea,” said Zahida Shad, a middle-class homemaker in Islamabad. She keeps a half-dozen chickens near the family’s garage, mostly to provide extra nutrition for her grandchildren. “Here in the city, people have money to spend, but they can’t find a single pure thing to eat,” she said.

Chicks that have just hatched at the center are sold to villagers. (Sarah Caron for The Washington Post)

Ahsan Jadoon, 10, feeds chickens on the rooftop of his uncle’s home in Rawalpindi. (Sarah Caron for The Washington Post)
Raising chickens is a common practice in this largely rural, agricultural country of 208 million. Even in crowded cities such as Rawalpindi, where narrow lanes are crammed with trucks, donkey carts and motorcycle rickshaws, many families build chicken coops on rooftops or under stairs.

And almost any Pakistani will tell you that desi eggs, produced by desi chickens, are better tasting and more fortifying than the factory-farm eggs that are now mass-produced in high-tech poultry facilities. Many have been built by wealthy industrialists who once invested in cement or textile production and have now cornered the egg market.

Sardar Ali Abbas, 55, who owns a crockery shop in Rawalpindi and keeps a few chickens on his roof, applied for the new program right away and is impatiently waiting for it to begin. He observed that factory-bred chickens are raised to lay more eggs and that while their eggs are larger and whiter than desi eggs, they lack their flavor and oomph.

“We want the same good food for our children that our parents and grandparents had for us,” Abbas said. “The problem is, desi eggs cost more and they are hard to find. The others are everywhere.”

Therein lie the greatest obstacles to the success of the chicken-in-every-plot scheme — economies of scale, which keep factory eggs cheap, and, reportedly widespread business practices, such as warehouse hoarding and price ma­nipu­la­tion, that benefit large food processors and brokers at the expense of small farmers.

In a recent essay in the News International newspaper, Zaig­ham Khan, a Pakistani development professional, wrote that persistent poverty in rural Pakistan is “more about the fox” than the chicken. With the political and business elite conspiring to maximize profits, he argued, only a radical reordering of the playing field can truly give family farmers a boost.

“The problem is that the whole market, at every stage, works against the poor,” he said in an interview. “It is fine for families to be eating better eggs, but even the small producers who raise 500 birds can’t compete with the crony capitalists who sell 30,000.”

Cargill plans $200M expansion in Pakistan, with focus on poultry and dairy
Cargill will also start grain trading and add other operations in Pakistan.

http://www.startribune.com/cargill-plans-200m-expansion-in-pakistan...

Cargill Inc. will invest $200 million in Pakistan over the next several years to build out the company’s supply chain there and harness growing demand for chicken throughout the region.

Cargill Inc. will invest $200 million in Pakistan over the next several years to build out the company’s supply chain there and harness growing demand for chicken throughout the region.

This marks a substantial expansion for the Minnetonka-based agribusiness — the world’s largest — which has run a small operation in Pakistan since the early 1980s. It’s also the company’s latest in a rapid series of investments throughout Asia, and specifically in the south and southeast parts of the continent.

Cargill currently has cotton, sugar, metals and animal feed business interests, as well as oil-crushing facilities, in Pakistan, but will scale up its legacy grain-trading business there over the next three to five years. Cargill did not provide additional details on what those operations will entail, but the company said it will increase its employee base beyond the modest 50 people currently working in the country.

“Finalizing one of our first investments in the agricultural supply chain in Pakistan is our top priority,” Imran Nasrullah, head of Cargill Pakistan, said in a statement. “We have received a very positive response from the Pakistani government and we value their support as we expand our presence here.”

Cargill’s investment will expand its dairy and meat business in Pakistan and deepen its focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Marcel Smits, the company’s former chief financial officer, was given a newly created role — head of Asia Pacific — in October amid a major executive reshuffle.

The company said Smits’ role was to “lead Cargill’s accelerated growth plan in the Asia Pacific region, a high-potential market for the company and its customers.” One month later, the company announced several multimillion-dollar investments in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

South and Southeast Asia hold some of the greatest growth potential in chicken, according to a recent Rabobank analysis.

Cargill is also growing its chicken business in another growth region: Central and South America. Cargill acquired Campollo in late 2018, less than a year after it acquired Pollos Bucanero, both Colombia-based chicken companies.

The office of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan applauded Cargill’s investment. The news comes as Pakistan attempts to attract foreign investment to stabilize and grow its economy.

#Pakistan's barefoot architect Yasmeen Lari is developing agile #construction techniques for low cost, zero carbon and zero waste #housing with materials like bamboo, mud and lime and testing her prototype on a shaking table at NED University in #Karachi. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/01/yasmeen-lari-p...

A mirrored glass ziggurat stands on a corner in central Karachi, flanked by a pair of polished granite towers. Golden bubble elevators glide up and down behind the tinted windows, shuttling oil executives to their offices through the sparkling five-storey atrium. The Pakistan State Oil House is a power-dressed monument to the petroleum-fuelled excesses of the early 1990s, oozing ostentation from every gilded surface – so it comes as a surprise to learn that its architect is now building mud huts for the poor.

“I feel like I am atoning for some of what I did,” says Yasmeen Lari with an embarrassed chuckle. “I was a ‘starchitect’ for 36 years, but then my egotistical journey had to come to an end. It’s not only the right of the elite to have good design.”

The 79-year-old architect was awarded the prestigious Jane Drew prize in London in March, a gong that recognises women’s contribution to architecture, for her tireless humanitarian work over the last two decades. She joins an illustrious cast of previous winners, including Zaha Hadid, Denise Scott Brown and Liz Diller, but her career has been like no other, moving from glitzy corporate monuments to shelters built with the barest minimum of means.

------------
While international aid agencies busied themselves erecting costly prefab housing with concrete and galvanised iron sheets, Lari worked with dispossessed families to rebuild their homes using mud, stone, lime and wood from the surrounding debris. Working with volunteers, she trained local people how to use whatever materials were to hand to rebuild in a better, safer way.

“I think we often misunderstand what kind of help is needed,” she says. “As an outsider, you do things that you think are appropriate, but the reality here is different. The aid mindset is to think of everyone as helpless victims who need things done for them, but we have to help people to do things for themselves. There’s so much that can be done with what’s already there, using 10 times less money.”

She says that the process of co-creation can also be a crucial part of healing. “Disasters can be truly devastating and people easily fall into deep depression. But if you give them something to do, it really helps with recovery. Something people have helped to make is much more valued than something simply given.”

Since 2005, a sequence of further earthquakes, floods and conflicts have kept Lari and her team at the Heritage Foundation on their toes, developing agile techniques with bamboo, mud and lime, always following the principles of low cost, zero carbon and zero waste. Severe flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces in 2010 saw them develop a design for modular community centres raised on stilts, which safely survived more floods a couple of years later.

When earthquakes hit Balochistan province in 2013 and Shangla in 2015, Lari designed shelters using a cross-braced bamboo framework, learned from the vernacular dhijji technique. Testing the prototype on a shaking table at NED University in Karachi, they found the structure was capable of withstanding an earthquake more than six times the strength of the 1995 Kobe disaster. If the homes ever did begin to crumble, they could be easily rebuilt using the same organic materials – unlike their concrete and steel counterparts.

Bamboo farming — a potential source of poverty alleviation

https://www.dawn.com/news/1454188

Bamboo is not only used domestically but it is also exported to other countries and if the government patronises its production and business, it can be a big source of poverty alleviation and strengthening of the economy.

Bamboo used to be cultivated in certain areas and sandy places in the past but now it is cultivated with proper care like other crops to get the maximum possible produce. High quality bamboo is cultivated at more than 85 places in district Narowal, including villages of Thillay Kalan, Wazirpur, Kandhala and Porokey. It is also cultivated in districts of Kasur, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin and Sargodha.

The bamboo crop is ready within a year while the annual cost of cultivation of one acre of bamboo is just Rs15,000 to Rs20,000. As is the case with sugarcane, bamboo roots are sown in the land at certain distance, the crop is manured only once a year and watered thrice a year. It does not need medicines or chemicals spray and it can bear severe weather conditions.

One acre of bamboo crop is sold at the rate of Rs200,000 to Rs400,000. Three to five thousand bamboos are produced on one acre of land. Labourers are paid Rs17 per bamboo for cutting and cleaning before they are shifted to the factories where bamboos are cut in different sizes and straightened with the help of furnace and machines. Wages are fixed with labourers for straightening and painting the bamboos and the rates range from Rs5 to Rs18 per bamboo. Each labourer can earn Rs1,000 to 3,000 per day. The bamboos are sold to shopkeepers on the wholesale rate of Rs4 to Rs9 per foot while a bamboo ladder of 10 feet is sold in the market at the price ranging from Rs500 to Rs600.


Besides production of ladders, bamboos are used in scaffoldings, construction of buildings, animal shelters and poultry farms. The villagers use bamboos to fix mosquito nets around their cots in the fields. Bamboo furniture is also used in houses for its beauty.

“My 10-member family has been working in the bamboo factory for the last 15 years. Some years ago, there was no business activity and I was living from hand to mouth. Now Pakistan has started exporting bamboo, so I earn Rs1,000 to Rs3,000 per day. Now I am happy and I save some money also,” labourer Muhammad Akram says.

Shaikh Ansar Ali, the owner of a bamboo factory, says the bamboo of Pakistan is of good quality and it is in big demand in the UAE, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries, therefore, it’s produce is increasing day by day.

Agriculture Development
in the Central Asia Regional
Economic Cooperation Program
Member Countries
Review of Trends, Challenges,
and Opportunities
INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEArch INSTITuTE
DECEMBER 2019

Food Intake
The average daily per capita calorific intake was estimated at 2,440 kcal in 2013. Figure A.62 displays the
proportion of calorific intake contributed by each of the major food groups. Cereals accounted for 48% of
daily calorific intake in 2013. Calorific intake from animal sources comprised 22%, while fruit and vegetables
accounted for 2%. The average daily per capita protein consumption was estimated at 65.5 grams, while the
average dietary energy supply adequacy was estimated to be 108% in 2015–2017.

https://www.adb.org/publications/trends-agricultural-development-ca...

Azolla as a fodder for livestock

https://www.technologytimes.pk/2019/05/29/azolla-fodder-livestock/

Azolla is a small plant which can easily grow in Pakistan and require just few inches of standing water for its growth, but the interesting part is that its rich in protein, dry matter, minerals, oils etc. which we needed for our livestock and it also have optimum palatability

Azolla is a genus of seven species of aquatic ferns in the family Salviniaceae. They are extremely reduced in form and specialized, looking nothing like other typical ferns but more resembling duckweed or some mosses. Azolla is a highly productive plant. It doubles its biomass in 3–10 days, depending on conditions, and yield can reach 8–10 tons fresh matter/ha.

Azolla meal contained (%DM) 21.4 crude protein, 12.7 crude fiber, 2.7 ether extract, 16.2 ash and 47.0 carbohydrate. A gross energy value of 2039 kcal kg was obtained. The concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium were 1.16%, 1.29%, 1.25% and 0.25% respectively, while those of sodium, manganese, iron, copper and zinc were 23.79ppm, 174.42ppm, 755.73ppm, 16.74ppm and 87.59ppm respectively.

The chemical score index showed the potential of Azolla meal as a good source of protein. Leucine, lysine, arginine and valine were the predominant essential amino acids. To produce Azolla we just need a standing water and sunlight. Asian or typically Pakistan environment is optimum for it. As it can grow on few inches of standing water, we can grow it in slap by slap in open environment just to increase its production per hector.

After harvesting Azolla just dry it in sunlight for 2-3 day as we have very hot environment it can be done in greenhouse or can be done by hot air blower and use in the concentrate or make pellet’s for poultry by adding some other necessary ingredients in it. Azolla can be found in the wild or in some garden and aquatic stores. In several countries Azolla is considered an aquatic weed and its import, possession and distribution are prohibited or discouraged.

In other countries Azolla has disappeared due to indiscriminate use of pesticides and needs to be nurtured as an endangered species. So, we can collect from any wild or aquatic garden and grow in our handmade pounds. Azolla prefers a placid water surface and temperatures around 20-30°C. It will die if it is subjected to prolonged freezing, but it can survive short periods of freezing.

Azolla growth rate is greatly reduced above 35℃ and it dies at temperatures above 45°C. It thrives in plenty of light (though not in direct sunlight) and in water that is rich in all essential plant nutrients. Azolla can grow in a nitrogen-free solution, but the nitrogen concentration level in water does affect growth and nitrogen fixation rates it is especially responsive to phosphorus and requires a continuous supply of this nutrient to maintain rapid growth.

Azolla that is exposed to intense sunlight or heat turns red and grows more slowly. A good location for a Azolla cultivation is in the shadow of a north facing wall or under a tree canopy. If no shadow is available, then shade cloth or mesh can be used to decrease the amount of light falling on the Azolla. Shade cloth can also be used to prevent animals, such as birds, from eating Azolla and polluting the cultivation.

Azolla can grow in layers and form mats that are several centimeters thick. However, Azolla grows best when there are gaps between the plants. It is therefore advisable to harvest Azolla regularly so that plants do not crowd or overlap, and to gently stir the water occasionally so that fronds break and the Azolla multiplies.

After an Azolla cultivation has been seeded it takes some time for the growth to stabilize. Once stabilized, the doubling time of Azolla is 3-5 days if the conditions are good in a 2 square meter cultivation about 250 grams of Azolla can be harvested daily. In a 100 square meter cultivation it is possible to harvest about 10 kg of Azolla daily.

Protein contents of a typical duckweed may be as high as up to 45% of the total dry mass of plants. Due to high protein content, the harvested duckweed is a potential food source for human and animal feeds

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0...

Sustainable management of leachate produced from the dumpsite is one of the major concerns in developing countries Aquatic plants such as duckweed have the potential to remove pollutants from wastewater which can also be cost-effective and feasible options for leachate treatment. Therefore, the objective of our present study was to examine the growth and nutrient removal efficiency of duckweed (Lemna minor) on leachate. Three tests were performed each by growing lemna minor on synthetic leachate under controlled conditions and on dumpsite leachate under natural conditions. During each test, duckweed was grown in 300 ml plastic containers with a surface area of 25.8 cm2. About 60 mg of fresh mass of duckweed was grown on 250 ml leachate at an internal depth of 9.5 cm. Results revealed that, in comparison to synthetic leachate, duckweed removed Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) more efficiently from dumpsite leachate under natural climatic conditions. However, the amounts of N and P absorbed into duckweed body mass were about 16% and 35% respectively more at synthetic leachate under controlled conditions. Maximum growth rate of duckweed (7.03 g m-2 day-1) was also observed for synthetic leachate in comparison to the growth rate of 4.87 g m-2 day-1 at dumpsite leachate. Results of this study provide a useful interpretation of duckweed growth and nutrient removal dynamics from leachate under natural and laboratory conditions.

Dumpsite leachate used in this study was prepared by processing the mixed solid waste collected from various residential, commercial and industrial dumpsites in Islamabad, Pakistan. About 100 to 120 kg of well decomposed solid waste was collected from each dumpsite. Waste was collected from pre-determined lowest points at depths of 0.5 m to 1.5 m [28]. Collected wastes were mixed in plastic tank having an internal diameter of about 1.5 m and a height of about 1.8 m. A sieve (pore size 1mm) was fixed at an internal height of 10 cm of the plastic tank. Fig 1 shows the schematic setup used for leachate production.

A mixed culture of duckweed was collected from wastewater treatment pond located in National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. Lemna minor plants were isolated from the mixed duckweed culture and used for this study after acclimatization for about seven days.

Data related to ambient air temperature and day lengths as shown in Table 2 was retrieved from the website of Pakistan Metrological Department, whereas the solar radiation data was obtained from the web site of LEO Corporation, Pakistan.

All experiments during this study were conducted within the premises of Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan where I am pursuing my doctoral degree (33° 38′ 41″ N, 72° 59′ 22″ E). Experimental site is owned by the IESE, NUST where no permits are required to conduct the research work for IESE students. Furthermore, it is to note that no endangered or protected species or locations were involved during this research study.

Chickens in Pakistan have been feasting on captured locusts under an initiative to combat swarms of the insects that are threatening food supplies in the impoverished country.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/pakistan-turns-locusts-chick...


Prime Minister Imran Khan has endorsed plans to expand a pilot project in the breadbasket province of Punjab, where villagers earned cash by gathering locusts that were then dried out, shredded and added to poultry feed.

Farmers are struggling as the worst locust invasion in 25 years wipes out entire harvests in Pakistan's agricultural heartlands, leaving people scrambling for income.

Muhammad Khurshid from Pakistan's food ministry and biotechnologist Johar Ali set up the programme, drawing on efforts in war-ravaged Yemen, where authorities have encouraged people to eat the protein-rich locusts amid famine.

The pair chose Punjab's Okara district, where farmers had not used any pesticides that would make locusts unsuitable for consumption.

"We first had to learn, and then teach the locals how to catch the locusts. Nets are useless against them," Khurshid told the AFP news agency.

At night, locusts cluster on trees and plants, making them easy to scoop up as they lie motionless in the cooler temperatures until the sun begins to rise.

For a reward of 20 rupees (12 cents) per kilogramme (roughly two pounds) of locusts, locals worked all night to collect them.

One farmer who lost all her crops to the insects said she and her son earned 1,600 rupees ($10) during a single locust-gathering outing, helping to offset the financial damage.

Organisers struggled at first to convince farmers to join the hunt but, by the third night, word had spread, and hundreds joined in - turning up with their own bags to stuff full.

With 20 tonnes of captured locusts, authorities ran out of money to pay the collectors and the programme was paused.

The ministry, which recently announced the results of February's pilot, is now preparing to expand the project to other locations.

The harvested locusts went to Hi-Tech Feeds - Pakistan's largest animal-feed producer - which substituted 10 percent of the soybean in its chicken food with the insects.

"There was no issue with the feed, the locusts have a good potential for use in poultry feed," general manager Muhammad Athar said, after trying the modified product on 500 broiler hens.

Nationwide emergency
While the project is not a solution to the devastation inflicted on crops, it can provide hard-hit farmers with a fresh revenue stream and relieve pressure on authorities struggling to distribute locust-beating pesticides.

Locust swarms have gnawed their way through crops across East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of India this year, and experts fear their numbers will explode as monsoon rains arrive this month.

The crisis is so severe that the government has declared a nationwide emergency and appealed for help from the international community.

Bananas, mangoes, vegetables and other crops are all vulnerable - raising fears of food shortages - as are the wheat and cotton harvests that provide Pakistan with vital revenue.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Pakistan could suffer about $5bn in losses if 25 percent of its crops are damaged.

A reduced harvest could also push prices up and risks worsening food insecurity.

About 20 percent of the population are already undernourished, with almost half of all children under five stunted, according to the World Food Programme.

Asafoetida (Heeng): The smelly spice #India loves but never grew. It's imported from #Afghanistan, #Iran. Known to battle flatulence, it is often recommended in recipes that involve gassy foods such as lentils (daal) or beans. #Ayurveda #Gas https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54617077

Asafoetida, a smelly, acrid spice beloved by Indians, has been used to lace their food for centuries. But it was never cultivated in the region - until now.

Last week, scientists planted about 800 saplings of the plant in Lahaul and Spiti, a cold desert nestled in the Himalayan mountains, exactly two years after India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) imported six varieties of seeds from Iran.

"We are confident it will work," says Dr Ashok Kumar, one of the scientists who painstakingly germinated the seeds in a lab. He says this was necessary because for every 100 seeds, only two sprout. The plant, it turns out, has a vexing habit of going dormant.

"It goes to sleep to adapt to harsh conditions," Dr Kumar says.

Asafoetida, or hing as it's commonly known in India, is a perennial, flowering plant that largely grows in the wild. It thrives in dry soil in temperatures under 35C. So India's tropical plateaus and plains, humid coast and heavy monsoons rule out much of the country for hing farming.

Instead, Indians rely on imports mostly from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - worth more than $100m in 2019 - to get their fix.

This is surprising news for many Indians who would argue that hing is inherently Indian. For many Hindus and Jains, who don't eat onion and garlic because of dietary restrictions, hing's pungency makes it an ideal substitute.

"I use it in all my dals, and I don't cook them with onion or garlic," says Marryam Reshii, food writer and author of The Flavour of Spice. "When you have hing in your food, that tiny whiff of it... it just tastes so, so great!"

Ms Reshii calls herself a "hing lover" - she even put out a detailed thread earlier this week clarifying the origins and uses of her favourite spice.

She says hing's unique smell, a strong, bitter odour, makes it "unlike any other spice".

It even derives its name from that scent - asafoetida in Latin means "fetid gum". The smell is so strong that raw hing, a greyish-white sticky resin collected from the roots, is dried and mixed with flour - wheat in India's north, rice in the south - to turn it into an edible spice. Wholesalers who import hing use tiny amounts of it to make graded variations that sell in the form of blocks, coarse granules or a fine powder.

Although the Persians once called it "the food of the gods", hing is now barely found in cuisines outside of India. In other parts of the world it's either used for medicinal reasons or as an insecticide! But In India, which, by some estimates, accounts for 40% of the world's hing consumption, it's hard to overstate its role in the kitchen.

A dash of it while cumin seeds and red chillies splutter in hot ghee can make an everyday dal sing. Across the country, it seasons delicately spiced soups (shorbas) and fresh relishes (koshambirs) and spikes leafy greens and vegetables tossed in ginger, turmeric and tomatoes. In the north, Kashmiri Hindus stir it in with lamb, red chillies, fennel and dried ginger to make their classic rogan josh and southerners use it to temper their sambars, a variety of steaming lentil stew topped with mustard seeds and curry leaves. It's what sets apart Kolkata's famed hing kachoris (pastries fried to a crisp) and the fluffy idlis (steamed rice cakes) of the temple town of Kanchipuram.


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But he says Kabuli hing is a "hot-selling" item, while Hadda hing, which is "sweeter and smells of oranges" is the least popular.

Meet Hing: The Secret-Weapon Spice Of Indian Cuisine

by Carolyn Beans

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/22/482779599/meet-hing...

The moment my boyfriend — now husband — and I got serious about our future together, my father-in-law got serious about teaching me to cook Indian cuisine. My boyfriend was already skilled in the kitchen. But Dr. Jashwant Sharma wanted extra assurance that the dishes from his native country would always have a place in our home. Plus, as he told me recently, he thought I'd like it.



"We mix four, five, six different spices in a single dish. These create a taste and aroma that you don't get in any other food. People exposed to it usually like it," he said.

Even before our cooking sessions, I knew that cumin and coriander are common ingredients and that turmeric will turn your fingers yellow. Hing, however, was something entirely new to me.

Europeans gave it the decidedly unflattering moniker "devil's dung." Even its more common English name, asafoetida, is derived from the Latin for fetid. Those unaccustomed to it can respond negatively to its strong aroma, a mix of sulfur and onions.


Hing comes from the resin of giant fennel plants that grow wild in Afghanistan and Iran. The resin can be kept pure, but in the States, you mostly find it ground to a powder and mixed with wheat. In The Book of Spice, author John O'Connell describes how Mughals from the Middle East first brought hing to India in the 16th century.

Many Indians use hing to add umami to an array of savory dishes. But for the uninitiated, hing can be a tough sell. Kate O'Donnell, author of The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook, says that she only included hing as an optional spice. "For a Western palette, hing can be shocking," she says

I first encountered hing in one of our early cooking sessions. My father-in-law whipped its well-sealed white plastic bottle out of the cupboard, added a pinch to the pan, and put it back so quickly that I didn't notice the smell. I was most struck by how it bubbled and then dissolved in the hot ghee (clarified butter). And I was a bit skeptical that a pinch of anything could influence a giant pot of lentils liberally seasoned with three other spices.

Later, while experimenting on my own, I got my first full whiff of the spice. To me, the aroma is far from gag-inducing, but it takes a real leap of faith to add it to food. Once you make that leap, magical things happen.

When cooked, hing's pungent odor mellows to a more mild leek- and garlic-like flavor. Some still smell a hint of sulfur, but for many that quality fades entirely. My father-in-law says that hing has a balancing effect on a dish. "It smooths out the aroma of all the other spices and makes them all very pleasant," he says.

Vikram Sunderam, a James Beard Award winner and chef at the Washington, D.C., Indian restaurants Rasika West End and Rasika Penn Quarter, says that he adds hing to lentil or broccoli dishes. But he uses it judiciously.

"Hing is a very interesting spice, but it has to be used in the right quantity," he cautions. "Even a little bit too much overpowers the whole dish, makes it just taste bitter."

Some believe that hing helps with digestion and can ward off flatulence. Perhaps that's why many — including Sunderam — add it to legumes, broccoli and other potentially gas-inducing vegetables.

Some Indians also use it as a substitute for garlic and onions — ingredients discouraged by certain Eastern religions and Ayurvedic medicine.

That substitution makes sense to Gary Takeoka, a food chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Takeoka studied hing's volatiles — the chemical compounds that produce smells. "A major proportion of hing's volatiles are sulfur compounds," he explains. "Some of these are similar to the ones found in onions and garlic."

With 1.32 billion birds, #Pakistan has the world's 5th largest #poultry population. #meat #eggs #protein https://www.statista.com/statistics/263961/top-countries-worldwide-...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1408522023186227202?s=20

Pulses: More than just a meat alternative
Beans, peas and lentils are often overlooked when it comes to food staples. In a world where the devastating environmental impact of mass meat production is becoming increasingly clear, could pulses provide a solution?

https://www.dw.com/en/pulses-more-than-just-a-meat-alternative/a-56...

Pulses, a broad category of edible seeds that includes pantry staples like lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas, are one of the world's most important food crops.

This underrated legume has featured heavily in diets around the world for thousands of years. Pulses are the main source of protein for people who don't eat meat — whether by choice or by circumstance — they're good for the environment, nutritious and tasty.

In recent years, the United Nations has recognized their global significance and declared February 10 as World Pulses Day. Read on to learn more about this humble superfood.

Environmentally friendly meat alternative
Changing our diet, and how we produce what we eat, can have a huge and positive impact on the planet.

A recent key report on food and biodiversity loss linked global eating habits to around 30% of human-made emissions in terms of energy and fertilizer, making them a "key driver of climate change." It also highlighted the devastating impact of our food production on nature.

A big part of the problem is meat and other animal products. Though it might be a good source of protein, meat is terrible for the environment. Getting a kilogram of beef to your kitchen emits as much as 60 kilograms (130 pounds) of CO2-equivalent, according to a 2018 study published in Science. And with the world population set to surpass 10 billion in a little over 30 years, increasing demand for food — especially meat and monocrops like wheat, corn and soybeans — will further stress the climate, limited natural resources and biodiversity.

Pulses like peas and lentils, however, produce some 0.9 kg of CO2-equivalent for every kilo grown. And they provide a far higher protein yield per square kilometer than a herd of cattle or flock of chickens, meaning existing farmland can be used more efficiently and untouched forests can be spared.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted pulses as "a good alternative to meat," pointing out that they "can play a key role in future healthy and sustainable diets." In recent years, calls from environmental groups for people in the Western world to drastically reduce their meat consumption, has inspired a growing trend toward vegetarian and vegan diets.

In a September analysis, climate data provider Carbon Brief said "a global switch to veganism would deliver the largest emissions savings out of any dietary shift," preventing some 8 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions annually by 2050. Current food production is responsible for around 13.7 billion tons per year.

"It is now becoming clear that a plant-based diet is not just a crock," said Christina Ledermann, head of the German advocacy group Humans for Animal Rights. "The future of nutrition is plant-based, or there is no future."

Commercial production of kidney beans to start soon in Pakistan


https://www.dawn.com/news/1670834

ISLAMABAD: The first-ever production of kidney bean varieties at commercial level will commence soon as the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) will release six new varieties of common bean varieties in the country.

According to a Parc report made available to Dawn on Friday, the achievement is part of the promotion of common bean cultivation in Pakistan under the five-year project for the promotion of research for productivity enhancement in pulses launched in 2019. The project has been funded by the Public Sector Development Programme with an amount of Rs1,437 million.

The report says shuttle multiplication has been proposed for the promotion of kidney beans in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the spring season and upper regions in the kharif season.

Scientists engaged in the pulse project say Pakistan has become self-sufficient in moong bean as its production was recorded at 267,000 tonnes against the national requirement of 180,000 tonnes.

The major focus of the project is to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production by increasing the yield of major pulse crops, including chickpea, lentil, moong, mash and kidney beans, by 30 per cent.

Under the umbrella project, till now 3,792 lines have been tested throughout the country in 25 different locations through national uniform yield trials to evaluate and select promising lines for varieties development.

As the country was facing acute shortage of quality seed of pulses, basic and pre-basic seed production has been carried out on about 1,107 acres through which 6,553 tonnes of seed has been produced and distributed among the farmers.

Parc officials say availability of quality seed of improved cultivars is the prime contributing factor towards achieving self-sufficiency in pulses. To ensure this, varietal trials have been conducted in different agro-climatic zones of the country and the seed of identified best varieties was distributed among the farmers.

Our total consumption of wheat and atta is about 125kg per capita per year. Our per person per day calorie intake has risen from about 2,078 in 1949-50 to 2,400 in 2001-02 and 2,580 in 2020-21

By Riaz Riazuddin former deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.


https://www.dawn.com/news/1659441/consumption-habits-inflation

As households move to upper-income brackets, the share of spending on food consumption falls. This is known as Engel’s law. Empirical proof of this relationship is visible in the falling share of food from about 48pc in 2001-02 for the average household. This is an obvious indication that the real incomes of households have risen steadily since then, and inflation has not eaten up the entire rise in nominal incomes. Inflation seldom outpaces the rise in nominal incomes.

Coming back to eating habits, our main food spending is on milk. Of the total spending on food, about 25pc was spent on milk (fresh, packed and dry) in 2018-19, up from nearly 17pc in 2001-01. This is a good sign as milk is the most nourishing of all food items. This behaviour (largest spending on milk) holds worldwide. The direct consumption of milk by our households was about seven kilograms per month, or 84kg per year. Total milk consumption per capita is much higher because we also eat ice cream, halwa, jalebi, gulab jamun and whatnot bought from the market. The milk used in them is consumed indirectly. Our total per person per year consumption of milk was 168kg in 2018-19. This has risen from about 150kg in 2000-01. It was 107kg in 1949-50 showing considerable improvement since then.

Since milk is the single largest contributor in expenditure, its contribution to inflation should be very high. Thanks to milk price behaviour, it is seldom in the news as opposed to sugar and wheat, whose price trend, besides hurting the poor is also exploited for gaining political mileage. According to PBS, milk prices have risen from Rs82.50 per litre in October 2018 to Rs104.32 in October 2021. This is a three-year rise of 26.4pc, or per annum rise of 8.1pc. Another blessing related to milk is that the year-to-year variation in its prices is much lower than that of other food items. The three-year rise in CPI is about 30pc, or an average of 9.7pc per year till last month. Clearly, milk prices have contributed to containing inflation to a single digit during this period.

Next to milk is wheat and atta which constitute about 11.2pc of the monthly food expenditure — less than half of milk. Wheat and atta are our staple food and their direct consumption by the average household is 7kg per capita (84kg per capita per year). As we also eat naan from the tandoors, bread from bakeries etc, our indirect consumption of wheat and atta is 41kg per capita. Our total consumption of wheat and atta is about 125kg per capita per year. Our per person per day calorie intake has risen from about 2,078 in 1949-50 to 2,400 in 2001-02 and 2,580 in 2020-21. The per capita per day protein intake in grams increased from 63 to 67 to about 75 during these years. Does this indicate better health? To answer this, let us look at how we devour ghee and sugar. Also remember that each person requires a minimum of 2,100 calories and 60g of protein per day.

Undoubtedly, ghee, cooking oil and sugar have a special place in our culture. We are familiar with Urdu idioms mentioning ghee and shakkar. Two relate to our eating habits. We greet good news by saying ‘Aap kay munh may ghee shakkar’, which literally means that may your mouth be filled with ghee and sugar. We envy the fortune of others by saying ‘Panchon oonglian ghee mei’ (all five fingers immersed in ghee, or having the best of both worlds). These sayings reflect not only our eating trends, but also the inflation burden of the rising prices of these three items — ghee, cooking oil and sugar. Recall any wedding dinner. Ghee is floating in our plates.