Food insecurity exists when people get to insufficient amount of food and are therefore not consuming the food required for normal growth and development. This may be because of lack of access to food because of unavailability, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution or inadequate utilization at the household level.
Causes:
Price Hike: Food prices in Bangladesh soaring day by day, and essential commodities, such as rice, wheat, flour, oil, onion and lentil are now well beyond the reach of the common people.
Shortage of reserve food: Bangladesh is suffering from food insecurity due to its lack of maintaining a substantial at food reserve in the public sector, as a guarantee against food hoarding and super profiteering in food.
Also, when there is indeed a food crisis, the reserve comes in handy in the form of open market operations, modified rationing, test relief, vulnerable group development, etc all designed to stabilize food prices, on the one hand , and address the lack of access to food by the poorest sections in the society, on the other.
Artificial Cause to add: Business Syndicate, corruption and unfair practice of business poses food crisis in Bangladesh.
Inadequate supply and stocks: When the government decided to import food, it was rather late in the day. Since the international food supply was tight, prices had already soared high. In fact, certain sources were unable to supply food to Bangladesh simply because they did not have the adequate stocks.
Restrictions of Exports: India, the neighbor on three sides, formally banned export of food grains to Bangladesh on the legitimate grounds that India itself was likely to experience food shortage.
Natural Calamity: Almost every year Bangladesh is facing calamities devastating heavy crops resulting in heavy food shortage.
Suggestions on addressing Food security:
By increasing the area of arable land: We have to understanding that assimilation of smaller portion of lands may contribute significantly to increase the area of arable land as adage goes ‘Drops of water make the ocean’.
Multipurpose use of land: Ours is a small country having limited cultivable land and even the optimum use of every inch of it is not enough for this vast population. We shall have to evolve the mechanism for extracting the entire potential of the land. We shall have to convert the land of one crop into two to three crops and if need be, realignment has to be made in the pattern of crops.
Introducing HYVS: For more production, we have to depend on the nature while on the other hand it is imperative to ensure the supply of good seeds, required pesticides as well as proper management of fertilizer. Though hybrid paddy is highly productive but its seeds are scarce and costly and in the same vein costly fertilizer and the pesticides are required to be adjusted with the prevailing climate. Otherwise, the production will decline alarmingly and the farmers will face enormous loss.
Easy access to agriculture: Our farmers are the helpless victims of high interest rate charged by the money lenders. They have to surrender to the deceitful middlemen and have to procure fertilizer at the peril of their lives. How unfortunate our country is!
Easy increases are achieved through promoting both rice and non rice based farming systems and other on and off farm activities such as agro-processing and small enterprise development and understanding of the market.
Mir Muhammad Ehsanul Haque
Student Counselor
Daffodil International University
counselor1.uttara@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd
