4842 Food Consumption in Pakistan: Application of Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System Irfan Ullah 1 *, Abbas Ullah Jan 1 , Syed Atta Ullah Shah 1 , Muhammad Ishaq 2 and Ghaffar Ali 1 1 Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Agriculture Peshawar-Pakistan, Pakistan 2 Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Islamabad, Pakistan Received: June 01, 2018; Published: June 20, 2018 *Corresponding author: Irfan Ullah, Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, The University of Agriculture Peshawar-Pakistan, Email: DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.05.001265 Irfan Ullah. Biomed J Sci & Tech Res Cite this article: Irfan U, Abbas U J, Syed A U S, Muhammad I, Ghaffar A. Food Consumption in Pakistan: Application of Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System. Biomed J Sci&Tech Res 5(5)- 2018. BJSTR. MS.ID.001265. DOI: 10.26717/ BJSTR.2018.05.001265. Research Article Open Access ISSN: 2574-1241 Introduction Being a developing country, Pakistan is ranked as sixth most populous country of the world with the population growth rate of 1.92 percent. The estimated population is 191.71 million of which 116.52 million (60.78%) reside in rural and 75.19 million (39.22%) in urban areas [1]. Statistics of daily income outlined by World Bank analysis reported that $ 1.25 per adult/day, which alarmed that 21.04 % of the whole population living below the poverty line. In the prevailing circumstances, in almost all the fundamental necessities food security top the list of immediate concerns. Government of Pakistan kept the food security policy from last several years as a dominant component of national agenda although the performance of agricultural sector has been encouraging with a growth of 2.1 percent during 2014-15 [1]. Food is a crucial need to bear life and to meet a successful growth. The world has progressed through hunter gatherer, agricultural and industrial stages to provider of goods and services. However, many of the today’s world have limited access to food, causing food insecurity, particularly in the developing countries. Food and nutritional insecurity in Pakistan is on the rise. Despite being an agrarian economy, more than half of the Pakistani population go hungry to bed, while 40% of children below the age of 5 are stunted [2]. Pakistan has attained notable improvement either from local production or imported edible product to maintain food stock, but still food shortage is a repeated phenomenon and government is facing challenges of feeding accumulated population year by year. The mismatch between population and availability of food also affected food pattern in the country. Food insecurity is a very consistent challenge for a country like Pakistan due to its annual Abstract This paper aims to examine the food consumption decisions of households in Pakistan to understand the demand for different food commodities and to determine the effects of important economic factors such as prices and income. Linear Almost Ideal Demand System model is applied to estimate food demand patterns using the Household Integrated Economic Survey of Pakistan for the year 2011-2012. Food products are categorized into fourteen groups including milk, vegetables, sugar, rice, fruits, beverages, wheat & wheat flour, other cereals, pulses, oil & fats, tea & coffee, backed products and other food. Economic factors such as food commodities price and household’s income and their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are included in the model. Prices of basic food items such as wheat & wheat flour, baked products, milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, beverages, rice, other cereals, pulses, oils & fats, tea & coffee and baked product should be kept constant. Imposition of any sale tax could create huge loss in consumption for these commodities. The uncompensated own price elasticity of demand for milk, meat, fruits, rice, other cereals and backed products are more elastic to food expenditures and can be categorized as luxury goods. As the demand for milk, meat, fruits, rice, other cereals and backed products are more elastic to total food expenditures (income). Imposition of any income tax on household personnel income could reduce their consumption of these food groups. Such policies could result food security problems for low & middle income households in Pakistan. Keywords: Demand System; LA/AIDS; Food Demand Elasticities; Expenditures Elasticities; Pakistan Abbrevations: IFPRI: Index of International Food Policy Research Institute; FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization’s; LA/AIDS: Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System; HIES: Household Integrated Economic Survey; PSB: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics; PSLM: Pakistan Social and Standard Living Measurement