All-out efforts needed to ensure food security

The appeal of 12 rights-based organisations to the government for price support to agriculture, building food stocks and ensuring subsidised prices of farm inputs deserves immediate attention. In a news conference in Dhaka early this week, they also pleaded for giving top priority to attaining food security through boosting agricultural production. The importance of food security in a country like Bangladesh cannot be overemphasied. There was a time not long ago when Bangladesh had to make frantic efforts to procure food grains from whatever sources at any prices when the country faced the possibility of food shortage.

It has to be kept in mind that future agricultural growth and food as well as nutrition security are already threatened by population growth, shrinking resource base (such as land and water) and the deterioration of their quality and productivity. Moreover, adverse impacts of climate change, compounded by minimal investments in agriculture and deteriorating extension services, are likely to exacerbate the problem of food and nutrition security in the days ahead. In fact, whatever progress has been made would be difficult to sustain in view of the growing pressure of population on scarce natural resources.

The issue of food security of Bangladesh warrants a long-term strategy. The country's planners, happy over recent fall in prices of food grains internationally, must not remain inactive ignoring the need for more food production in the country. The budgetary allocation of Tk 123.90 billion for agriculture for the fiscal 2014-15 reflects such a lax attitude. Though the amount is a Tk 1,110 million hike from the last fiscal year's allocation, the sector's share in the total budget has declined by 0.73 per cent. Agriculture subsidy has been set at Tk 90 billion, which is the same as was in the last fiscal. However, the economy has witnessed inflation of more than 7 per cent, which means the subsidy has actually declined by 7 per cent. The reduction in the agricultural allocation means production cost will rise further, which would push small farmers into poverty.  

In fact, millions of farmers across the country will gradually lose their livelihood and become landless farm workers if such neglect continues.  A lack of emphasis on agriculture where 49 per cent of the country's population is employed is undesirable. When arable land is declining by one per cent a year and food demand is rising, providing inadequate subsidy is also not a wise decision, especially when production costs are rising and farmers are not getting fair prices. Newspapers photographed our farmers dumping potatoes and spilling milk on roads and fields out of frustration for not getting fair prices. On the other hand, the country is importing powder milk.

A FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation) project launched in the country recently is expected to ease the plight of farmers to some extent. The project will assist farmers in increasing their access to markets through development of new forms of farmers' associations or groups, work with small-and medium-sized agribusiness enterprises mainly in rural areas and link producers and buyers to facilitate better marketing of farm produces. The government too should undertake similar programmes on its own.