Achieving comprehensive food security
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Abul Faiz
FOOD security will have to mean self-sufficiency or near self-sufficiency in the future in other foodstuffs apart from grains.
For example, cooking oil is an indispensable food item and mustard oil was produced sufficiently to meet the requirements of the consumers fully. But now, locally produced mustard oil meets roughly one tenth of such requirements and the rest of the needs for cooking oil have to be met by importing mainly soybean oil.
The same can be said about dry chilies, ginger and other spices as well as various pulses which used to be grown in Bangladesh in adequate quantities to meet the entire demand of the country. But now substantial quantities of these have to be imported because of insufficient local production. Thus, import dependence has also developed in relation to these food items.
Once the country was self sufficient in milk and fishes. But powdered milk is imported in huge quantities and also fishes through formal and informal routes, because local output of the same fall short of the demand. Thus, the country has not only became largely import dependent in relation to many basic food items but also vulnerable to their price escalations in international markets.
This situation constitutes a drain on the country's modest foreign currency reserve. And at times the rising prices of imported foodstuffs make it also difficult or impossible to market them at desirable prices in the local markets. Thus, it is very necessary to make large scale investments in the coming years by the government and private sector in the non-cereal sub-sectors of agriculture. However, it needs to be emphasised that all such investments must be encouraged and promoted under a comprehensive and strategic framework.
Planned cultivation of the non-cereal crops with improved seeds and technologies will have to be tried. Policies should lead to a big push in the livestock, dairy and pisiculture sub-sectors to substantially increase production in them. Furthermore, production of fruits and vegetables for meeting fully the internal consumption needs and then producing a surplus for export, should be aimed.
FOOD security will have to mean self-sufficiency or near self-sufficiency in the future in other foodstuffs apart from grains.
For example, cooking oil is an indispensable food item and mustard oil was produced sufficiently to meet the requirements of the consumers fully. But now, locally produced mustard oil meets roughly one tenth of such requirements and the rest of the needs for cooking oil have to be met by importing mainly soybean oil.
The same can be said about dry chilies, ginger and other spices as well as various pulses which used to be grown in Bangladesh in adequate quantities to meet the entire demand of the country. But now substantial quantities of these have to be imported because of insufficient local production. Thus, import dependence has also developed in relation to these food items.
Once the country was self sufficient in milk and fishes. But powdered milk is imported in huge quantities and also fishes through formal and informal routes, because local output of the same fall short of the demand. Thus, the country has not only became largely import dependent in relation to many basic food items but also vulnerable to their price escalations in international markets.
This situation constitutes a drain on the country's modest foreign currency reserve. And at times the rising prices of imported foodstuffs make it also difficult or impossible to market them at desirable prices in the local markets. Thus, it is very necessary to make large scale investments in the coming years by the government and private sector in the non-cereal sub-sectors of agriculture. However, it needs to be emphasised that all such investments must be encouraged and promoted under a comprehensive and strategic framework.
Planned cultivation of the non-cereal crops with improved seeds and technologies will have to be tried. Policies should lead to a big push in the livestock, dairy and pisiculture sub-sectors to substantially increase production in them. Furthermore, production of fruits and vegetables for meeting fully the internal consumption needs and then producing a surplus for export, should be aimed.