Pahoran cannot send men, but he does send provisions. Gideon is unaffected, and their capacity to produce is not restricted. Nevertheless, we should not think that the redirection of provisions away from Gideon is an easy thing. While Gideon may well have been able to produce a surplus that was excess for their own population, they now have a larger population to feed internally, and have sent some of those foodstuffs to Moroni. The act of sending the provisions should be seen as an extremely generous act in that it would have diminished the available provisions for the army in Gideon.