Editorial
A challenge to food security
The catch is in nutritional content of the diet
THE commonly held view that the country has become self-sufficient in food needs to be evaluated with a caveat, according to a survey carried out last year on the state of food security and nutrition in Bangladesh.
National Food Security and Nutrition Surveillance Project (FSNSP), which conducted the study, found that despite quantitative increase in food grains production, 60 per cent of the households with 10 million children suffered from food insecurity last year. The more alarming aspect of the finding is that 80 per cent of the households among the lowest income bracket of the population were hard hit by food insecurity.
Though the survey report relates to the state of food security in 2010, it gives one no reason to think that the outlook may be better this year. For there is still no sign that the driving causes of food insecurity, such as, high food price, poor nutritional content of the food consumed by the poor and the bottlenecks in accessing food by the poor have changed for the better. So, until now food security remains the same, if not worse for the section of people under review.
The survey also found that some 45 per cent of the children under five are suffering from chronic malnutrition. So, the government needs to undertake community-based programmes to improve child feeding practices. The community-based feeding programmes should give emphasis on addressing the problem of malnutrition for both the child and its mother, as good health of the former implies good health of the latter.
As the survey result has shown, the government has to ensure that the poorer section of the population are having access to food at an affordable price.
That necessitates taking steps like arresting food price hike, improving distribution of food and increasing buying capacity of the poor through creation of more rural employment. At the same, the government should also expand its safety-net programme in keeping with rising level of inflation.
The new challenge to food security, therefore, requires the government's focused approach to addressing the problem of nutrition.
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