Ensuring food security: A priority now

M Mizanur Rahman When a country concentrates on industrialization, energy and infrastructure take a room in its strategic agenda. But for some country, when survival of the people is the major issue and poverty eradication is the major precondition of taking it ahead, food comes as the top prioritized issue. But what is Bangladesh doing? It is to deal with poverty eradication, food price inflation, industrialization and so many things at a time and unfortunately, our government is struggling to prioritize the things. Ensuring food security is more crucial than most other things for our country now. When polarization amidst the people is being seen to be alarming in Bangladesh, high food price is deteriorating the situation more. Food price is rising everywhere in the world but it does not mean that we will let the thing go when we do have the potentiality of checking this. What to do with food price inflation? When the World Food Programme (WFP) is claiming that 30 per cent of the population of Bangladesh is unable to buy food for its high price, the Finance Minister is saying that he is not worried about it as the entire globe is suffering from this problem. But he said few days earlier that 'we expect to reduce inflation to 7.5 per cent by year-end'. It is true that the people who have the head should have the headache. But if one does not have it, it becomes the headache of all and ultimately no solution is possible to arrive at. We do not know whether it is the view of the government or only of the minister. According to a study conducted by the Bangladesh chapter of the British charity, Oxfam, the production of the two main cereals, rice and wheat was in excess of about 6.0 million tonnes between July 2010 and June 2011. The study noted after deducting wastages and extrapolating the total demand for cereals, Bangladesh had a surplus in the two main cereals since 2005-06. Since then, the excess production continued to grow in quantity. Despite a good crop of some 33.5 million tonnes in the last crop season, the state food department has planned to import some 500,000 tonnes of rice and 900,000 tonnes of wheat to keep the market stable and meet emergency needs. When the production or supply side of food is quite good, government needs to import food and also it has followed seven strategies among nine that a country can follow for controlling food price inflation. But after all these attempts, it failed to control inflation of food price. What will happen if there is a decline in food production? Rice production in northern Bangladesh is going to be severely threatened within a few years. So, what will happen if the entire northern part of the country loses its productivity due to draught? Nomura, a news agency enlisted 25 states that can be crushed for food price inflation and unfortunately Bangladesh is in the top of the list. Nomura's index is calculated using these three variables. The higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP), the better the number is, as consumers have more to spend. The lower percentage of income spent on food, the better. And the more food exported, the better, as it means there is excess for domestic consumption. Again, much of Asia's grain production areas remain unprotected against increasing threats of climate change and extreme weather events. Due to population pressures and growing demand for housing, many farmlands are also being converted to residential uses. Land resources are also being degraded through erosion, pollution, nutrition depletion, and salinization. And in Bangladesh, these trends are very acute. So, from all the aspects, we are on the verge of falling into the ocean of trouble. Perceiving the situation, a question comes in every sensible mind: how much sincere, cautious and prepared are we for the upcoming situation of food production and food price inflation in Bangladesh? Still now man-made issues are acting as vital forces of high food price in our country. It is whether for the overreaching tendency and dishonest desires of the businessmen or for the insincerity of the government. If it is accompanied by the adverse effect of climate change, who knows what the situation will be? Inflation of food and fuel is so crucial that it affects the prices of other commodities very quickly and adversely. One per cent inflation in rice price may see increase of 50 paisa in a kilogram but we cannot see the invisible linkages of this 50 paisa, that a man has to pay extra for other services like even for rickshaw fare. Surprisingly, the farmers are not getting the benefit of the rise in rice price and so, they are trying to concentrate on other crops-especially cash crops-even tobacco for gaining more money. Still we have something to do in our hand and what we always suggest i.e. contribute to the supply-side of food. But now one more thing is needed because that contribution has some limitation in deed. A central and proper management of food is vital now for us and we firmly believe that if we can follow the price support strategy and procure rice from the farmers and also sale or distribute that stocked rice sincerely and honestly, all will be benefited. It is proved that input subsidy is a less fruitful strategy. I if we go for this price support, the small and medium farmers also try to invest in rice production as they have been assured of their proper price. The consumers will also be able to buy rice at an affordable price. But for this, a strong mechanism of management is mandatory. For a country like Bangladesh, a lot of things needs to be done for the development. Since economic development is widely considered as one of the major parameters of that our governments tries to see it good but it is not the all. Rather, the well-being of the entire population should be considered for defining development. And before all these debate, people need to eat first. So, ensuring food security should be a priority for the government; otherwise, we will have to bear the situation as Nomura indicated. The writer is a development researcher and works for an international non-government organisation or NGO. He may be reached at e-mail: mithunmds07@gmail.com