Open AccessPakistan's Edible Oil Needs and Prospects for Self-sufficiency
Author(s) -
M. Ghaffar Chaudhry,
Amir Mahmood,
Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v37i4iipp.205-216
Subject(s) - poverty , self sufficiency , edible oil , agriculture , economics , production (economics) , food security , debt , business , foreign direct investment , investment (military) , basic needs , natural resource economics , economic policy , development economics , economic growth , political science , chemistry , food science , macroeconomics , finance , politics , law , ecology , biology
In today's world economy, financial crises have been quiterampant and have been a source of greater misery, deprivation andpoverty among a growing number of countries [Wolfensehn (1998)]. Some ofthe major causes of this state of affairs especially in Pakistan lie inrising debt servicing liabilities, receding donor assistance and growingsaving-investment and import-export gaps [UN (1997)]. To the extent thatthe above situation can be ameliorated considerably by emphasis ondomestic production especially in agriculture, this paper looks atpossibilities of increasing the production of oil-crops for eliminatingedible oil imports. It must be noted that self-reliance in edible oil isnot important in its own right but would also be consistent with morejudicious use of domestic resources, greater food security, enhancedwelfare of consumers and producers and above all saving of scarceforeign exchange resources [Goldman (1975) and Mellor and Johnston(1984)]. In line with the above, the paper has the following outline.Section 2 reviews edible oil situation in the country. The factorsunderlying the growing edible oil deficit are highlighted in Section 3.In Section 4 discussion is centred on policy alternatives for attainmentof self-sufficiency in edible oils through local production. The finalSection 5 summarises the conclusions of the paper.