Poverty mires food security in Bangladesh

Introduction

Accomplishing food security is the key development priority for all developing countries, like Bangladesh. It is a global concern for every individual as one in nine people around the world go hungry every day (FAO). Despite of attaining self-sufficiency in food production, a huge number of people still experience some degree of food insecurity in the entire country. To feed its ever growing population, agricultural scientists, private sector entrepreneurs and NGOs of Bangladesh are striving. This country has made significant improvement in the productions of cereal crops, vegetables, potato and animal protein. Bangladesh is now standing 3^rd in rice production, 3^rd in vegetables and 2^nd in fish production across the world. Since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, the government has been trying hard to control population growth and triumph over food insecurity. Since the country’s independence, production of rice, staple of the people, increased three times. It was possible due to tireless efforts of the agricultural scientists, private sector entrepreneurs and NGOs with the support of the government.  Uneven income and unequal land ownership have made food access difficult for many people. Food utilization has improved but balanced food intake here is still far below the standard level. A good number of people are still severely food unsecured and malnourished. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explains food security as a situation ‘when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’. The definition says that food security is a complex situation that involves physical and biological aspects of food production, distribution and utilization, considering food stability throughout a specific time. Thus, food security embraces four key dimensions of food availability, access, utilization, and stability (FAO).

Bangladesh is an agrarian country where some 53% of her population are engaged directly in farm activities for their survival. Besides, a lion’s share of the national economy comes from the agriculture sector (GDP’s 19%).  More than 70% of our calories come from rice alone. It is worth mentioning here that Bangladesh has made tremendous improvement in ensuring food availability for her citizens. However, about 21.8 % of people live below the poverty line and do not have sufficient access to food. Moreover, it is shocking that even with the sufficient food production, around 25% of people still remain chronically food unsecured. So, it is warranted now to assess the present status of food security in Bangladesh and to find out the drawbacks, especially in case of food access, utilization, and stability.

                                                                                     Data Sources: FAO, WFP & BBS

                                                      Fig: Four pillar of food security

Food Security Status of Bangladesh

Availability of food:

The major food crops are quite available in Bangladesh, especially rice, which is the staple of Bangladesh. The rapid development and subsequent improvement in various high yielding crop varieties (including hybrid rice) and technologies along with better agricultural extension system, year-round availability of food for people was made possible. During 1970s and 1980s, it was quite difficult for the government to assure people of two meals a day.   However, rice production has been increasing steadily in Bangladesh, making food availability easy for her people. Beside the crop sector, Bangladesh has made notable progresses in fish and livestock production. The country is the second fish producing nation in the world (FAO). The increased production and supply of fish, meat, milk and egg contribute to the overall availability of food to the general people. Considering the progress in food production the per capita availability of food has also increased. Home demand for cereals and potatoes are met. The availability of vegetables, fish, meat and milk have also increased notably, whereas further measures are required in case of egg, pulses, oilseeds and fruits productions.

Access to food:

Despite making tremendous success in food production, Bangladesh is still experiencing limited access to sufficient food. Although 60% of the people are directly or indirectly engaged in farming, uneven land distribution lead them to disproportionate food access. Marginal farmers (0.5 – 1.5 acres of land) constitute major part of Bangladesh’s population. They also consists of 45% of the farming communities. These marginal farmers mainly have access to cereals and other basic food items. Poverty is another factor that makes access to food difficult and create food insecurity for nearly one-fifth of the population. Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing poverty basket and improved its extreme poverty situation with the passage of time. Due to slow growth of GNP and high population growth, people always keep staying below the poverty line. This trend seemed a bit sluggish in the urban areas. Indicators such as wages and income are the key factors in accessing food by the poor. Majority of the labour forces belong to the farming community and therefore, their income and wages are quite low compared with other professions in the country. Price hikes and market instability have worsened the conditions of the households and affected their food access. Sudden price hikes deteriorated the purchasing power of the people who spend over half of their income in purchasing staple food. This snatches away their opportunities to invest in farming.  

Food Utilization and Nutrition:

Another dimension of food security in Bangladesh is deficiency in proper nutrition and utilization of food. Although food consumption has been increased in the last few decades, adequate intake of nutritious food is still far below the standard level. The national average per capita food consumption was 913.80 grams in 1995-96, but it was increased up to 1000 grams in 2010, which was higher than the normal food intake (934 grams/person/day) for a regular person. The extent of food consumption was significantly higher in the rural areas (1000.5 gram/person/day) than the urban ones (985.5 gm/person/day) in 2010. Even though urban people consume less amount of food, their overall nutrition is better than the rural people. The main portion of food intake by the rural people comes from cereals, especially rice. The average calorie intake of the rural people is higher than the urban people, which is due to high calorie value of rice. Nowadays people are more concerned about food quality and nutrition. They spend more on high quality food. The same progress is also noticed in the rural areas of the country. It was found that the major percentage of calorie came from rice (71.1) followed by vegetables (8) and oils (7.4) in 2019. On the other hand, people used to have very low calories from eggs (0.4) and fruits (0.4). The major vulnerable groups (children and women) find this situation more difficult and are still undernourished, especially the reproductive aged women and children aged less than 5-year. This situation implicates the imbalanced nutrition consumption and lack of food security in food utilization and nutrition.

Food Stability:

Food stability is a new dimension of food security concept. Stability in food availability, food access, food utilization including nutrition and food safety, are the crucial factors of food security. Therefore, it is highly important to retain a stable condition in food market and food supply chains. To hit this target, international trade plays an important role in stabilizing the food supplies in the market. It reduces the consumption fluctuations and relieves the country from the costly burden of stock holding interventions. In case when trade cannot fulfil the goal of food market stabilization, the government can maintain food security stocks to a reasonable level depending on the internal and external situations. Moreover, the government is expected to stabilize the food access throughout the year by employing the food safety net or social protection strategies.

Key Challenges in Achieving Food Security in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is not completely food-secured and the probable future challenges may make the situation more critical. Climate change is considered as one of the key challenges for food security. The changing patterns of hazards and natural calamities such as irregular and untimely rainfalls, uneven temperature fluctuations, salinity rise, ill-timed drought, river erosion and floods have made Bangladesh more vulnerable to food security in the forthcoming days. An expected estimation says that climate change may cause up to USD $26 billion losses to Bangladesh’s agricultural sectors during 2005-2050 (FAO). This loss may be more in rice production and lead to 3.9% reduction per year. Besides, the increasing conversion rate of agricultural land to non-agricultural land could have adverse impacts on food security. One-third of the agricultural land was lost in the last 30 years due to unplanned usage. This losing pace does not seem to slow down considering the population growth and rate of urbanization. The total population of Bangladesh is predicted to reach 260 million in the mid-21^st century which will bring about severe food shortage for the nation. Global food price hike tendency due to the recent covid-19 pandemic is also the challenge in the upcoming days. Since most of the Bangladeshi population are poor, they will face a tough challenge to afford meals in the future. To ensure the food security of people, better planning and appropriate measure should be taken.  future.

Recommended Action for Food Security and Safety in Bangladesh

• Protection of the existing arable land should be the priority of the government to ensure sufficient crop production.
• The land distribution policy should be more agriculture-friendly and farmer oriented.
• Cultivable waste land should be distributed among the people who do not have land for farming purposes.
• Need to promote hybrid rice seed, vegetables seed and other crops to meet the increasing food demand.
• Incentive packages for farmers should be easier so that marginal farmers can be entitled to it, easily.
• Need to promote mechanized agriculture to reduce production cost and overcome the labour crisis which will boost up production. The MOA is already focusing on it.
• Ministry of agriculture need to address properly about safe use of pesticides. Still 60% potential acreage is untreated.  Pesticide is not the barrier of safety food rather it saves 15-20% yield, protecting infestation and infection of crops by insects and diseases. So, the ministry and departments concerned should focus on safe use of pesticide through training and creating consciousness among the farmers.
• The present yield gaps can also be exploited using simple interventions such as better seeds, nutrients, and water management.
• Investment on research should be increased so that researchers can be motivated. They should develop various varieties to cope with changing climates.  
• The government should promulgate strict laws and monitor implementation of these regulations to control the food market and to stabilize the market prices.
• Supply chain and food value chain need to be addressed.
• Mobile court operations should be maintained throughout the year against contaminated food for the sake of safety food.
• Government should give more emphasis on private sector and that the government should utilize private sector resources in related areas.
• Coordination should be strengthened between ministries, such as, agriculture, food and industries.
• Finally, the government must ensure farmers’ return on their investment through sustainable price and input supply policies.

The writer is an agriculturist, professional and food industry expert