Potentials of achieving food security

Dedicated planning and timely supports can make Bangladesh a food-surplus nation and ensure food security for its population. Bangladesh produced 24.3 million tonnes of food grains in fiscal year (FY) 1999-2000 matching the requirements of the then 130 million population and since then it has been on the fringe of self-sufficiency. Presently, Bangladesh has 8.29 million hectares of cultivable land and about 150 million population. Each year, the country is loosing about 1.0 per cent of its cultivable lands to non-agricultural uses while its population is increasing by about 2.0 million. A yearly incremental production of 0.35 million tonnes is required for food grains self-sufficiency. International organisations like FAO, WFP, IRRI, WB, IFAD and the ADB are all unanimous about continuation of high global prices of food grains in the coming years. The flip-side of high price is that surplus producers will get lucrative payments. Thus, Net Food Importing Low Income Countries (NFILICs) have to go for a long-term strategy aimed at maximising food production to protect themselves from uncertainty of an unpredictable volatile external markets. An IFRI and John Hopkins University study, made almost a decade ago, found that self-sufficiency in rice for Bangladesh is necessary not only to meet world market instability, but also for its comparative advantages in production. Bangladesh, the world's fourth largest rice producer, has potentials and capabilities to attain sustainable food security and even become a net rice exporter. Bangladesh has to produce at least 31 million tonnes of food grains in its 8.29 million hectares of cultivable land for a projected population of 160 million to attain food-surplus in a short-term of five years. This is not an unachievable target. Some of the attainments necessary for being food-surplus in the short-term are: l Proper planning and effective coordinated implementation: 'Grow More Food' campaign, 'Green Revolution', 'Medium Term Food Production Plan (MTFPP)', 'Accelerated Rice Production Programme (ARPP)' and various national-level government-run programmes have consistently facilitated and enthused the farmers to grow more food crops. This resulted in the higher growths of 1990s and early 2000s. Coordinated implementation of a farmer-friendly long-term plan of government is a pre-requisite for self-sufficiency. l Product price stabilisation and agricultural credit: Drastic fall in immediately post-harvest price is a common local happening. Eighty-five per cent of the farmers have to sell immediately on harvest (even sell in advance) for debt payment or other urgent necessity. Ensuring reasonable post-product price and keeping price-variation within rational limits will hold farmers' interest in food crops. Formation of "Producers' Food Bank" as is being experimented in India, is worth consideration. l Financial constraint in procuring inputs is an impediment for majority of farmers: Availability of pre-production agricultural loan will boost production. Disbursement and recovery of loan, with governmentprivate funding, can be made through "farmers' cooperatives" in a similar system as loans of Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF) to NGOs. Availability of pre-production credit and post-production reasonable price can do away with agricultural subsidies and their related maladies. l Population control: Popu-lation growth is unwarranted in Bangladesh because of limited land and other resource bases. The 1974 population growth rate of 2.48 per cent has now come down to 1.42 per cent. Jobs for rural women, extensive motivation and easy availability of family planning materials at grassroots level will effectively assist in bringing down the growth rate further. l Food habit change: Nationwide, substituting one meal of rice with bread (made of 50 per cent wheatmaize flour and 50 per cent meshed patato) will reduce Bangladesh's total food grain requirement by at least 15 per cent and optimise use of home grown potatoes. Food habit change motivation will need active support of media, civil society and government. Japanese per capita consumption of 155- 160 kg of rice per year in the mid-50s has come down to 60 kg at present. l Contract farming: Myanmar was earlier reported to have offered to lease out to Bangladesh at least 50,000 acres of land for rice cultivation for a period of at least 10 years. Had that 'offer' been accepted and put into operation, 50,000 acres would have helped to add at least 60,000 tonnes of food grains to the national inventory. China and Thailand are already engaged in contract farming in Myanmar. Bangladesh can also seek out contract farming in some African countries which have ample fallow lands. l Cultivation of fallow lands: Fallow lands in Bangladesh are either lying fallow in-between two crops or remaining vacant for a year or more. About 75,000 hectares lying fallow after an Aman harvest in Rajshahi region are capable of producing an additional big amount of wheat with timely irrigation. A total of 737,363 hectares was lying fallow for a year or more against a net cropped area of 7.97 million hectares in 2005. The picture has not changed much since that time. Even raising a single crop there would have increased total national production by at least 9.0 per cent. l Improvement in seed quality and production techniques, dissemination of information and stable supply of inputs: Wide dissemination of updated and validated information on quality seeds, production techniques, balanced fertiliser use, irrigation, harvesting, storage, marketing etc., to the grassroots level farmers augments agricultural growth. Average yield of 1.5 tonneshectare of late 70s has come up to more than 3.0 tonneshectare. A Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) experiment has earlier helped in more than doubling per hectare rice production, with timely provision of proper inputs alone. Raising the average rate of production to four tonneshectare to achieve food-surplus is not unattainable. Ensuring availabilty of good HYV seeds can to a large extent help increase total food grains production by 10 per cent. * Efficient post-production crop management: Post-harvest loss in Bangladesh, amounting to 30 per cent - 40 per cent of production, is very high. Fifty per cent savings in post-harvest loss by efficient management of production and storage alone can make Bangladesh a food-surplus country. Bangladesh can immediately become surplus in food grains by accomplishing any one of the factors like cultivation of all fallow lands or improvement in seed quality and production techniques, stable and timely supply of inputs or efficient post-production crop management. Nation-wide food habit change will generate sufficient food-surplus and make Bangladesh a net rice exporter. Though availability is a necessary pre-requisite, mere availability may not ensure food security for all, as access is also related to purchasing power. Individual food security, cumulatively leading to national food security is the choicest option in this regard. To achieve food security in a medium-term of, let us say, 15 years, Bangladesh has to produce at least 35 million tonnes of food grains in the 8.29 million hectares of cultivable lands available at that time for a projected population of 176.6 million. The factors mentioned before can provide food-surplus in the short-term but for long-term food security, cultivable lands available at that time will simply be not enough. Land is the only source of food security at household and at national level in Bangladesh. Much of the land-mass of Bangladesh is created by deposition of Ganges-Brhmaputra-Meghna (GBM) sediments and the normal delta development is still going on. Retaining the yearly passing of 2.4 billion tonnes GBM sediments would give rise to 200 sq. km of new land. Natural depositions are random, slow and fragile. Partial sediment retainment is neither technically difficult nor economically prohibitive. Land reclamations in Bangladesh require less cost-intensive interventions. Artificial interventions can make land reclamation sustainable by accelerating deposition at desired places and holding them there. New jobs, food security and rice export, for Bangladesh in the coming decades, are all linked together to adequate cultivable lands and land reclamation can ensure that. The land reclamation project of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Meghna Estuary Studies etc. were preparatory works for long-term land reclamation activities. More than 1000 sq. km of land have been reclaimed by hands-on activities like Meghna Cross Dams 1 and 2, Muhuri Closure Dam, etc. A 'BWDB Task Force' recommended erection of 19 priority cross dams to assist and accelerate Meghna Estuary's natural land development activities. 'The Royal Netherlands Government', 'Global Environment Facilities (GEF)', 'Cool Earth' partnership of Japan, UN's 'Least Developed Countries Fund' and 'Special Climate Change Fund', JBIC, JICA, DFID, WB, ADB etc. are some of the sources of support funding for the Meghna Estuary Project. The Estuary Development Programme (EDP) initiated by BWDB in March'07, with Dutch grant funding, is a logical follow up of land reclamation activities in Meghna Estuary. The project limped for one year and since then is passing through a scaled down phase, for circumstances beyond its control. Invigorating the EDP will put in motion the process of reclamation of hundreds of sq. kms of new lands from sea and push the national boundary further south resulting in a geographically bigger Bangladesh and expanding the apparently finite land resource base. The process will go on ensuring food security, in the coming decades, for millions of Bangladeshis. The writer can be contacted at email: enayetrasul7114@gmail.com