Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world (UNDP 2012; World Bank 2010 and Malik et al. 2012). This posits serious challenges to agriculture, rendering the attainment of national food security for a rapidly growing population a challenge. The situation of national to local food availability, access, and utilisation has been worsened by frequent extreme climatic events (ESCAP 2009; IFPRI et al. 2011 and Ramay 2012).  Moreover, the failure to respond to these changes, especially natural resource management has exacerbated the situation of food insecurity (CGIAR 2009; FAO 2008 and Elbehri et al. 2011).

This study identifies key issues and gaps in the institutional and technological framework that has caused inefficient food distribution and management in Pakistan. The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response Framework (DPSIR) was adopted for analysing the food security component and institutional response  with reference to climate change research and development in Pakistan. With the help of this framework, the underlying relationship between the ‘driving force D’ (climate change) through ‘Pressure P’ (climate change impacts like natural disasters) to ‘state S’ (changes in agricultural production) and ‘Impacts I’ (food security/hunger) on the system leading eventually to an institutional ‘Response R’ (policies/action plans for adaptation and mitigation) was explored. The framework enabled us to review relationships between climate change impacts and food security planning, while identifying gaps in management actions.

New and dynamic policies and institutions are needed to cope with the current pressures. There is a need to encourage food system management in a technical and scientific manner in order to trigger targeted reforms. While considering the recent impacts of climatic change on agriculture, there is a need to enhance related institutional capacity in the country in order to minimise such impacts on food insecurity in the future.

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