Pakistan Faces Prolonged Food Crisis Amid Low Kharif Harvest and Rising Prices

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that Pakistan’s Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan provinces will remain in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) conditions through January 2027. Below‑average monsoon rainfall has curtailed the 2026 kharif crop, especially rice in Sindh and Balochistan, while irrigation shortages have reduced planting areas. Poor households are depleting rabi wheat stocks and, with low income from labor, are increasingly reliant on markets that are burdened by high food and transport costs. The government has released public wheat stocks and fast‑tracked imports of one million metric tons, but these measures are expected to curb prices only for one to three months. Concurrent outbreaks of lumpy‑skin disease and foot‑and‑mouth disease in livestock‑reliant districts further erode household incomes, deepening the crisis. The situation underscores the vulnerability of Pakistan’s food security system to climate variability and market shocks, with potential long‑term impacts on nutrition and livelihoods across the country.