Islamabad:Like in low-income countries, nutrition has received little policy attention in Pakistan despite the fact the country suffers from two forms of deficiencies such as under-nutrition and malnutrition.
Chief Executive K&N’s Founder Chairman, Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) Khalil Sattar said that malnutrition is a problem of wide-ranging implications that caused two-third of deaths among children from one to four years old in developing countries, says a press release.
He said that malnutrition is of a more serious nature, which arises from a lack of adequate intake of quality animal protein.The National science council of Pakistan felt that this form of protein deficiency causes lower energy, lower industrial and agricultural production, decreased resistance to diseases and high mortality and death rate in children.
FAO stipulates that the average protein requirement of adults is 45.92 grams/day. Animal protein requirement being 40%, it should be 18.38 grams, whereas its availability in Pakistan is only 6,4 grams/ capita/day creating a gap of 11.98 grams i.e. a gap of 776,304tons/annum.
The Chairman said that poultry is the only way forward to fill in the animal protein gap, as one out of every three Pakistanis “does not have regular and assured access to sufficient food”. Khalil has suggested that we must learn from the experience in India, where steps have been taken to build a national nutrition policy, besides launching a national program, because malnutrition is considered as the mother of illness.“Though the gravity of the problem of malnutrition has been recognized in all quarters, only stray efforts have been made which are grossly inadequate to achieve the goal. These efforts include the supply of skimmed milk and biscuits to children in the schools. However, their nutritional values do not justify the cost expenditure,” he added.