One of the latest articles of https://www.eurasiareview.com/ by Erina Haque is discussing about food security state of Bangladesh that declared as a basic right of every citizen guaranteed by the country’s constitution. Food security defined by the author as an availability of safe food commodities to everyone through local producers and imported supply at affordable prices. Author highlights the difference between self sufficiency in food and food security, referring the case of England and Japan possess better food security state but not food self-sufficient. Conversely, states with higher capacity to feed themselves, can face with food insecurity issue which means that majority of their population could have inadequate amount of food.
Bangladesh encountered to a food scarcity issue during its Liberation war, consequently when the country gained an independence, the state started to improve its food security. In the last decade these attempts embraced improving of food and nutrition security, hence the country was able to feed 168 million population through enhancing national agricultural sector laced with the continuing shortage of arable land. These initiatives have been accomplished through consistent economic development and employment of approximately 40 per cent population in the agricultural production sector which leads to decreasing of malnourished population from 16 to 9 per cent in 2019.
Local production in its turn increased household income, social safety net programs that strengthened per capita food availability. Food safety programs are mainly funded by the state budget, have different purposes such as test relief, nurturing vulnerable communities, employment guarantee scheme. Other types included assisting impoverished females or senior age people of extreme poverty. Additionally, the state launched initiatives that provided loans with flexible payment terms to assist domestic production of agrifoods. Two state programs as The National Agriculture Policy 2018 and the National Agricultural Mechanization Policy 2020 was initiated to increase sustainable agricultural development, also to meet the UN SD goals aimed at ending hunger by 2030.
Currently Bangladesh has significant advancements in reaching self-sufficiency in the production of fish, vegetables, potatoes, and grains. Moreover the country takes 4th rate globally in rice, third in vegetables, seventh in mangoes, and eith for potatoes. The country has dependency on external supply of oil, oilseeds, processed goods, and indigenous production of mustard, sesame, sunflower, and rice bran.
The full original article is here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/31102022-how-bangladesh-is-trying-to-ensure-food-security-oped/
