The seeds and fertiliser have been given to farmers hit hard by last year’s food price hikes just in time of current Rabi planting season under a 40 million Euro-project, which runs through June 2011 in the form of collaboration between the EU and FAO and helped by WFP.

The FAO is helping small farmers to increase their production, with the overarching aim of making more food available for over one million of the country’s more vulnerable.

Based on conservative estimates, FAO’s assistance during the coming four cropping seasons will lead to an additional production of at least 114,000 tons of wheat, 4,750 tons of rice and 14,250 tons of assorted crops, including vegetables and lentils, the UN agency said.

According to Gamal Ahmed, FAO Representative in Pakistan, most of Pakistan’s rural population is made up of small farmers who face increasing difficulties to live off the land.

“They can’t grow enough for themselves, because the prices of inputs have gone up too,” he says. “That’s why we focus on providing them with seeds and fertilisers.”

On the part of EU, Imran Ashraf, Development Adviser, says that small farmers in Pakistan needs more than inputs alone. “They are in dire need of quality seeds and fertiliser, water and extension.”

According to a recent UN assessment report, soaring food prices pushed a further 10 million Pakistanis into the ranks of the hungry – the total number of hungry people in the country is now estimated at 46 million, or 28 per cent of the population.

There were 36 million hungry people in Pakistan in 2004-06, according to FAO statistics. The country has become a priority of the one billion Euros Food Facility, the EU’s massive response to increased food insecurity around the world.

The main findings of the UN assessment indicate that more than half of the surveyed households experienced high food prices as a shock. Most households have tried to cope with the high food prices by reducing non-food expenditures.

The high food prices are undermining the poverty reduction gains, as food expenditure comprises a large share of the poor’s total expenditures and food price hike has severely eroded their purchasing power.

The field assessment suggests that households who cannot afford to obtain medical assistance when sick increased from six per cent to 30 per cent.

Similarly there is a serious risk of massive dropout and thus loss of the gains in primary school enrolment achieved in past years.

Without an urgent intervention, Pakistan will seriously miss MDG (millennium development goal) targets and, more immediately, face deteriorating child malnutrition (pre-crisis 38 per cent of children under five years were malnourished) and increased child mortality (about 50 per cent of child mortality in Pakistan is food related).

The poorest households now need to spend 70 per cent or more of their income on food and their ability to meet most essential expenditures for health and education is severely compromised. In addition, the diminished purchasing power has severely impaired the capacity of the poor households to seek healthcare, and children’s education, particularly of girls.

The situation has further exasperated by the falling nutrition level, particularly for already malnourished children. High food prices affect urban and rural households differently, as income, food sources, expenditure patterns as well as coping strategies vary.

The survey further indicates that more than 40 per cent of households reported no change in income since last year, while a larger share in urban areas observed a decrease than an increase in income.

For farmers, the main determinant is the farm gate price they are able to get for crops, while for the 45 per cent of the population who are working as employees, it is the change in the real wages, eroded by inflation.