Deficit in daal production and consumption worsens a dwindling diet
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Nerun Yakub
The average daily intake of lentils/pulses/daal in Bangladesh has dwindled to 15 grams, which is just a third of the per capita requirement recommended by the World Health Organisation. This was reported recently by the Daily Ittefaq which quoted officials of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute as saying, that land under lentil cultivation has declined alarmingly, by as much as a hundred thousand hectares over the past decade. The reasons cited are: too much focus on the staple rice; non-availability of enough good quality seeds; increased pest attacks; adverse change in weather patterns and of course the loss of arable land to other uses.
In the mid 1990s the country was able to meet 80 per cent of the demand by cultivating lentils and legumes on about 6,89,000 thousand hectares. But by 2003 import had gone up to nearly 50 per cent. The government is said to be addressing this deficit problem through a Taka 240 million project. It aims to enhance the per capita availability of lentils by two grams. One might say, this is better than nothing, but details as to how the government would go about increasing the availability of daal ----- considered to be ' the poor man's protein' ---- for those most in need have not been furnished.
Agricultural scientists in Bangladesh are said to have developed 27 new high-yielding varieties of lentils, including chickpeas. Unfortunately, the yield from these varieties have not been up to expectations, according to reports. As with most HYVs, they have proved to be more pest-prone than the traditional varieties. These may yield less per hectare but are clearly hardier, tastier and more flavoured. Besides, they do not need expensive agrochemical inputs and are therefore worth salvaging, according to organic activists who are trying to recover the lost seeds that farmers here have been cultivating for centuries.
The government is said to be committed to improve the per capita availability of this vegetable protein. As everyone knows, the 'average' concept helps keep neat accounts, but does it really give the actual picture on the ground ? As averages go, consumption patterns of the overfed minority and underfed majority, tossed about to arrive at a mean figure, cannot really come close enough to the dire truth ----the worrying state of the people's diet in Bangladesh at this point in time. Most poor people are existing on plain rice with little or no daal or any other curry, vegetables being too costly and even low-value fish selling at high prices. With the jheels, khals and beels gobbled up by greedy land developers and the rivers poisoned by shortsighted industrialists with the connivance of equally handicapped policymakers, common -property capture fisheries are no longer available as a source of fish protein or usable water.
Apart from this mal-development, there seems to be another deficit affecting people in general, and that is, ignorance as to what constitutes a balanced diet. While many who can afford are found gorging high energy fast foods, the average end up taking meals that are too meager to sustain them through the day, in terms of both protein energy and carbohydrate energy. Both the overfed and underfed are present on university campuses. As part of an informal survey of what average students consumed as their midday meal, this scribe took an opportunity once to have lunch at DUCSU cafeteria when the 'menu' was supposed to be special khichuri and chicken. The experience confirmed the view that the food caterers/managers ought to be given some nutrition education. The khichuri hardly had any daal in it and the chicken was only a tiny, bony piece of the bird, not more than one/twelfth, piled up on a plate and served with a green chilli and one/tenth of a cucumber ! No other vegetables were served. Little wonder that students are found wilting after a few hours of class !
The protein content in the Bangladeshi diet, in terms of meat, fish and milk, has been fast disappearing from the plates of the average citizen over the past decades. Now eggs and lentils have joined the list. In non-AC kitchen markets good quality moshoor daal is selling at Taka 104 per kg, moog at Tk 88, mash at Tk 52 per kg. Among the cheapest is kheshari ( known to lead to lathyrism, if consumed without proper preparation ). As for eggs, which is considered a 'whole', high quality protein, like milk, the price is Tk 95 per dozen. Needless to say, the fixed income middle class has had to bring down consumption of these protein foods to a minimum. The compromises of those below the middle class can only be imagined, specially the plight of the poor and stark poor.
Nutrition experts tell us that the relative proportions of the various foodstuffs in the diet should be such that about two-thirds of the energy requirement is provided by complex carbohydrates ( cereals, roots, fruits and vegetables), one-sixth by fats, and one-sixth by proteins ( at least one-fifth of this protein coming from animal sources, meat milk, fish and eggs, and the rest from vegetables, the main being lentils, legumes and other seeds and nuts ). And that vegetarians must fulfill their need for both class one and two proteins with milk and various lentils, legumes and nuts. Nutritionists also tell us that although these proportions can be varied to suit the special conditions and special needs of different people at different times, the principles are the same. There must always be enough protein for growth and repair of body and brain tissues; pregnant and lactating women, children, adolescents and youth, need more protein than others; those who do hard, physical labour require an increased proportion of carbohydrates. This basic, but essential knowledge about food and nutrition, and indeed about human health and physiology, ought to be part of compulsory school education so that people learn early on how to take care of themselves through balanced food intake and healthy lifestyles.
National leaders need to treat this nutrition crisis seriously and urgently, as a clear policy priority, not just a stop-gap venture in which much sloganeering and reports and sound bites are generated without tangible results. The so-called National Integrated Nutrition Project is a case in point. It has been on for well over a decade, with little to show for the money spent so far. Access to a balanced. affordable diet, guaranteed for the majority, is the most urgent requirement today, if we are to realize the full potential of Bangladesh's millions in the 21st century.
The average daily intake of lentils/pulses/daal in Bangladesh has dwindled to 15 grams, which is just a third of the per capita requirement recommended by the World Health Organisation. This was reported recently by the Daily Ittefaq which quoted officials of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute as saying, that land under lentil cultivation has declined alarmingly, by as much as a hundred thousand hectares over the past decade. The reasons cited are: too much focus on the staple rice; non-availability of enough good quality seeds; increased pest attacks; adverse change in weather patterns and of course the loss of arable land to other uses.
In the mid 1990s the country was able to meet 80 per cent of the demand by cultivating lentils and legumes on about 6,89,000 thousand hectares. But by 2003 import had gone up to nearly 50 per cent. The government is said to be addressing this deficit problem through a Taka 240 million project. It aims to enhance the per capita availability of lentils by two grams. One might say, this is better than nothing, but details as to how the government would go about increasing the availability of daal ----- considered to be ' the poor man's protein' ---- for those most in need have not been furnished.
Agricultural scientists in Bangladesh are said to have developed 27 new high-yielding varieties of lentils, including chickpeas. Unfortunately, the yield from these varieties have not been up to expectations, according to reports. As with most HYVs, they have proved to be more pest-prone than the traditional varieties. These may yield less per hectare but are clearly hardier, tastier and more flavoured. Besides, they do not need expensive agrochemical inputs and are therefore worth salvaging, according to organic activists who are trying to recover the lost seeds that farmers here have been cultivating for centuries.
The government is said to be committed to improve the per capita availability of this vegetable protein. As everyone knows, the 'average' concept helps keep neat accounts, but does it really give the actual picture on the ground ? As averages go, consumption patterns of the overfed minority and underfed majority, tossed about to arrive at a mean figure, cannot really come close enough to the dire truth ----the worrying state of the people's diet in Bangladesh at this point in time. Most poor people are existing on plain rice with little or no daal or any other curry, vegetables being too costly and even low-value fish selling at high prices. With the jheels, khals and beels gobbled up by greedy land developers and the rivers poisoned by shortsighted industrialists with the connivance of equally handicapped policymakers, common -property capture fisheries are no longer available as a source of fish protein or usable water.
Apart from this mal-development, there seems to be another deficit affecting people in general, and that is, ignorance as to what constitutes a balanced diet. While many who can afford are found gorging high energy fast foods, the average end up taking meals that are too meager to sustain them through the day, in terms of both protein energy and carbohydrate energy. Both the overfed and underfed are present on university campuses. As part of an informal survey of what average students consumed as their midday meal, this scribe took an opportunity once to have lunch at DUCSU cafeteria when the 'menu' was supposed to be special khichuri and chicken. The experience confirmed the view that the food caterers/managers ought to be given some nutrition education. The khichuri hardly had any daal in it and the chicken was only a tiny, bony piece of the bird, not more than one/twelfth, piled up on a plate and served with a green chilli and one/tenth of a cucumber ! No other vegetables were served. Little wonder that students are found wilting after a few hours of class !
The protein content in the Bangladeshi diet, in terms of meat, fish and milk, has been fast disappearing from the plates of the average citizen over the past decades. Now eggs and lentils have joined the list. In non-AC kitchen markets good quality moshoor daal is selling at Taka 104 per kg, moog at Tk 88, mash at Tk 52 per kg. Among the cheapest is kheshari ( known to lead to lathyrism, if consumed without proper preparation ). As for eggs, which is considered a 'whole', high quality protein, like milk, the price is Tk 95 per dozen. Needless to say, the fixed income middle class has had to bring down consumption of these protein foods to a minimum. The compromises of those below the middle class can only be imagined, specially the plight of the poor and stark poor.
Nutrition experts tell us that the relative proportions of the various foodstuffs in the diet should be such that about two-thirds of the energy requirement is provided by complex carbohydrates ( cereals, roots, fruits and vegetables), one-sixth by fats, and one-sixth by proteins ( at least one-fifth of this protein coming from animal sources, meat milk, fish and eggs, and the rest from vegetables, the main being lentils, legumes and other seeds and nuts ). And that vegetarians must fulfill their need for both class one and two proteins with milk and various lentils, legumes and nuts. Nutritionists also tell us that although these proportions can be varied to suit the special conditions and special needs of different people at different times, the principles are the same. There must always be enough protein for growth and repair of body and brain tissues; pregnant and lactating women, children, adolescents and youth, need more protein than others; those who do hard, physical labour require an increased proportion of carbohydrates. This basic, but essential knowledge about food and nutrition, and indeed about human health and physiology, ought to be part of compulsory school education so that people learn early on how to take care of themselves through balanced food intake and healthy lifestyles.
National leaders need to treat this nutrition crisis seriously and urgently, as a clear policy priority, not just a stop-gap venture in which much sloganeering and reports and sound bites are generated without tangible results. The so-called National Integrated Nutrition Project is a case in point. It has been on for well over a decade, with little to show for the money spent so far. Access to a balanced. affordable diet, guaranteed for the majority, is the most urgent requirement today, if we are to realize the full potential of Bangladesh's millions in the 21st century.