Chakki

According to the 2018 National Nutrition Survey, Pakistan is facing multiple burdens of malnutrition due to the lack of diet diversity, a key contributor to poor nutrition across the life stages; 37 percent of the population is food-insecure, and 42 percent of women of reproductive age have anemia. Adding vitamins and minerals to commonly eaten foods through fortification is generally done via large-scale production systems. But in Pakistan, most people, including the poorest and most at risk of malnutrition, buy their wheat flour from one of the country’s 70,000 small-scale mills, called Chakkis.

Chakki has four objectives:

1. Strengthening and extending the enabling environment, regulatory monitoring, and enforcing food fortification in partnership with the public sector;
2. Expanding and sustaining wheat flour and rice fortification in compliance with national fortification standards by the private sector;
3. Strengthening the design, quality assurance, monitoring, and evaluation of fortification programs;
4. Garnering and mobilizing global commitment, leadership, and resources to scale wheat flour and rice fortification.

Pakistan’s annual per capita consumption of wheat flour stands at 124kg and is one of the highest in the world. 

Fortification of wheat flour alleviates Pakistan’s micronutrient malnutrition crisis. 

Consumers of whole-grain wheat flour procure at least 70 percent of the product in small-scale chakkis. Thus, the distribution of fortified wheat flour produced by small-scale mills is a vital intervention to improve nutrient intake in the general population, especially the most vulnerable in society.

Apart from ensuring the improved supply of fortified whole wheat flour in small chakkis, awareness to increase demand and policy implementation is equally important. 

The World Food Programme (WFP), in collaboration with the National Fortification Alliance (NFA) and relevant stakeholders, commissioned a feasibility study to: 1) assess the operational and regulatory environment governing the functioning of small-scale mills; 2) identify plausible entry points and; 3) suggest replicable and scalable models for the fortification of chakki flour. 

The feasibility study also establishes that fortification of chakki wheat flour is not simply a supply-side intervention but rather the confluence of demand, supply, and regulatory factors. 

WFP launched the CHAKKI FORTIFICATION project in 2019 to scale the fortification of whole wheat flour milled by chakkis in cooperation with public-private partners.

Chakki has supported the fortification of over 696 megatons of flour, representing 83 percent of commercial production in the two pilot districts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Over 3 million people in Pakistan consumed fortified flour purchased from the supported flour mills. In 2024, WFP will triple the number of small-scale mills it supports to 155 across 22 districts in Pakistan.