Autarky in Food: Evidence and Prospects

Without going into details which have been discussed elsewhere [5, pp.1- 4], we would like to emphasize the importance of self sufficiency in food in terms of its direct contribution to more judicious use of domestic resources and economic development, reduction of risks associated with dependence on world food market, enhanced welfare of consumers and producers, and, above all, saving of foreign ex• change (7, p. 263). The present paper examines Pakistan’s prospects of attaining this goal. Since Pakistan’s programme of self sufficiency in food has been synonymous with wheat self-sufficiency [25, p. 1 J, this paper focuses on wheat alone. In line with its objective, the present paper is divided into four sections. Section II reviews Pakistan’s achievements in self sufficiency in wheat, beginning with the early Fifties. In Section III, the emphasis is on Pakistan’s prospects of maintaining self• sufficiency in wheat. Section IV summarises the conclusions and recommends policies for the future course of action.