World Food Day 2024 echoes the call for a hunger-free world by 2030. With the theme 'Right to food for a better life and a better future', the global event will plan a resilient food system for a better future and better life. Food and nutrition security have become increasingly critical concerns for policymakers despite a technological revolution in agri-food systems over the last two decades. Observance of this international day is important for Bangladesh, a country with a population of 170 million, because it helps us evaluate our strengths, weaknesses, and prospects for becoming a food-secure nation.
World Food Day is an annual global observance that aims to raise awareness and take action against worldwide hunger and malnutrition. This day serves as a reminder of the need to ensure food security and access to nutritious food for all. It also highlights the importance of sustainable agriculture and food production in addressing global food challenges. World Food Day is an opportunity to come together as a global community and work towards a world where no one goes to bed hungry.
Food security is still a global concern despite the introduction of cutting-edge modern agricultural technologies. Global arrangements for climate-smart agriculture, precision farming, and generative production systems failed to ensure food for all. Fragile distribution channels, weak value chains, distorted market intervention and faulty agri-food systems make the prospect of food security uncertain. The global mission for net zero, farming resilience, and sustainability further compounded the traditional production system. Salinity, drought, draw-down of groundwater level, and decreasing cultivable land threaten food security in Bangladesh and many other countries.
Close to 700 million people go to sleep hungry each night, and of equal significance, more than two billion of the world's population suffer from hidden hunger due to a lack of essential micronutrients, such as vitamin A, iron and zinc in diets. Furthermore, according to recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), more than 144 million children are stunted, causing developmental problems and susceptibility to lifelong ill health. Bangladesh remains a global hunger hotspot despite a stunning success in food production over the last four decades.
Zero hunger by 2030 is one of the major SDG goals of the United Nations. More than 3 million people will need to be taken out of hunger every month to achieve the goal. However, achieving a zero-hunger target by 2030 is quite uncertain. With the current pace, 58 countries are expected to fall outside the middle score boundary in the Global Hunger Index. The COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the economic recession, and climatic change have retarded the growth. Bangladesh's achievement in reducing GHI score (26.2 in 2015 and 19.0 in 2023) is significant compared to neighbouring countries India (28.7), Pakistan (26.6) and Afghanistan (30.6). Bangladesh still needs a 10-point reduction to graduate to a low-score country. Given the climatic risk, reducing cultivable lands and regular disasters would make it difficult for Bangladesh to achieve the zero hunger goal. Holistic policy planning, cutting-edge research, and substantial investment will be required.
Estimates suggest a 68 per cent increase in food production by 2050. Given the growing middle class and increasing purchasing capacity, demand for meat and other calorie-rich high-value food will increase significantly. Added demand for feeds (poultry, fish and livestock), fodder crops, and industrial raw materials is likely to insert more pressure on our soil. Thus, agriculture will be more intensive by using more inputs (fertilizer, chemicals, PGR).The food system accounts for 26 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. (Agriculture, forestry, and land use make up 18.4 per cent of this, while the rest is down to things like packaging, refrigeration, and transport.
The agri-food systems may be considered as an instrument of public health that can deliver health-promoting foods with consumer acceptability. This system faces existential threats from: declining availability of water and soil nutrients; loss of productive arable land due to degradation and urbanisation; plant and animal biosecurity; unpredictable weather and changing climate, declining public trust and social license. There is widespread optimism about the potential of digital innovations to transform agrifood systems and value chains, boost market linkages, and facilitate smallholder commercialisation.
Global connectivity, technological excellence, scientific collaboration, and shared goals will justify smart and sustainable agri-food systems by 2050. Planning a carbon-neutral sustainable agri-food system is a strategic priority for Bangladesh in the future. Setting an ambitious agriculture vision is imperative to achieve a USD 1500 billion GDP goal by 2050.
By 2050, Bangladesh is expected to experience an increase in temperature of about 1.5°C which will threaten the life and livelihood of about 15 million people residing in coastal areas. About 25 million farm families will be the worst victims of climatic change. Therefore, climate justice for climate-vulnerable Bangladeshi farmers is essential for sustainable agri-food systems in the coming years.
Bangladesh is the most vulnerable to climate change impacts as it is predicted to lose 11 per cent of its land if sea level rises by 2050 according to IPCCC report. Existing climate change adaptation measures in Bangladesh are becoming ineffective due to the intensity of climate change impacts. Most of the indigenous and traditional knowledge are not properly identified.
It is time for 'climate justice' to address the issues that emerged due to the actions of others and secure the rights these countries deserve. Recently, during COP26 in Glasgow, the issue of climate justice took the spotlight in the eyes of the negotiators, world leaders, and even the locals. The failure of developed countries to meet the $100 billion goal pledged at COP15 by 2020 for developing countries has vividly reflected the need to put the light on climate justice in further climate actions.
A climate justice centre may be established in different physiographic regions of the country, which will include local government institutions, academic institutions, development organisations and most importantly, the local community in the team. In this way, local Indigenous adaptation practices can be addressed from a scientific point of view in order to make them resilient. It will also equip future generations through participation in evidence-based research and activities.
Launching a social movement for climate justice to support climate-vulnerable farmers in their fields is the need of the hour. Climate justice issues deserve immediate policy attention and nvestment for food justice, better lives, and better futures.
The writer is an agriculturist and climate expert.
roushonjamal@yahoo.com