Food security
Photo: STAR
According to a forecast by WFP, the increase in international food price will continue till 2010. This should be taken very seriously because it is a potential threat to the survival of 56 millions of people who are below the poverty line in the country. The long queues in the BDR shops seem to be a mockery of humanity. People wait long hours under scorching heat to procure the very basic provision of life: food. Even the middle class people are joining the lines to buy rice at a lower price. Already they are consuming only half of their regular diet. And we do not know what happens to those 27 million who are extremely poor. Amid these ordeals of the common people, one hopes that the policymakers would be proactive in dealing with the situation and devise plans to avert its recurrence. However, we are repeatedly being asked to wait till the next Boro crop or till the Indian government lifts the restriction on export of rice. These two ways of procuring food are of course a solution in the short run. But the plans and actions needed to handle the implications of the forecast on the international food price are anything but adequate. For policymaking it would be essential to understand the dynamics that have caused food prices to soar in the international market. Firstly, towering oil price has led to high production and transportation costs; secondly, the worldwide food production has gone down due to droughts and other natural disasters. If we pay attention to these factors, we find that they are likely to worsen rather than improve. Another catalyst is the huge economic growth in countries like China and India that has given rise to an increased demand for rice. This demand will be on the rise. Last but no the least, lands once used for food productions are now being turned into producing bio fuels to rein in oil prices and fight climate change. There is no point to think that this trend will reverse rather than escalate, contributing to rising food prices. Set against this grim prospect, we cannot be complacent with one single harvest, however high the yield might be. Neither should we be so content as to rely on the import from India. In fact, dependency on food imports may push the poor to their deaths, agitate the life of the middle income people and cause the economy to collapse. To let people survive and the economy to function normally, we have to ensure food security. And for that the one and only motto should be not to import food grains. This may sound utopian, though. But the idea is workable once political spirit emerge to address the issue. Besides, we have to improve market efficiencies, familiarise farmers with the market, ensure easy and timely agriculture loans, restrain smuggling of the subsidised commodities such as oil and fertiliser, and introduce adaptable modern technologies for intensive farming. Moreover, we have to think of equilibrium between income and price. After all, the present price hike would not have the detrimental impact on life had people's real income increased in tandem. With the current wages it is possible to buy half as much necessities as would have been possible just a year ago. In addition, the number of wage earners in families has not increased due to the lack of expansion in employment. All this has led to a reduction in the national savings, and people are even forced to sell assets to buy food. The economy is now trapped in such a vicious loop. In order not to let anything to upset life even further, we have to bring the economy out of this vicious circle, prioritising actions for the economic expansion, especially in income and employment growth. If only we can coordinate efforts among expert bodies, if only we all work hard at our respective levels, we can ensure food safety for us. Right now it would be too costly for the nation if we expect everything to settle down without doing anything substantial of our own.
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