The World Bank food security update that has put Bangladesh in the red zone for a year until May 2024 suggests the worsening food insecurity in Bangladesh. The update says that persistent high food inflation has pushed the large majority of low- and fixed-income people into food insecurity. Bangladesh is placed in the red zone with 18 other countries, where food inflation ranged between 5 per cent and 30 per cent. In Bangladesh, food inflation, keeping to the conservative Bureau of Statistics figure, has remained over 10 per cent for a year. Independent studies, however, estimate food inflation rate double the official figure. Even the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies estimated food inflation in May at 15 per cent while the official figure put it at 10.76 per cent. A South Asian Network on Economic Modelling survey report in March said that moderate and severe food insecurity had increased sharply in two years. The report, which focused on the impact of inflationary pressure on households in April 2023鈥揘ovember 2023, said that high food inflation had led 70 per cent of the households to change their food habit involuntarily.
The Food Security Statistics 2023 of the Bureau of Statistics also showed a dismal food security situation. The survey said that 22 per cent of the population experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023. The highest prevalence of food insecure people, 26.13 per cent, was found among families involved in farming. High inflation, slow economic growth and dearth of work have, meanwhile, triggered a reverse migration, with more than 14 people per 1,000 having, as official figures show, returned to villages. Economists say that high inflation has continued to erode people鈥檚 purchasing power since mid-2021 and that the number of the new poor has continued to rise, with the government having showed a conservative poverty rate. The food insecurity situation is believed to be caused primarily by the erratic nature of food prices on the domestic market, which the government has failed to address. The government took a number of measures to keep the market stable, but the market remained at the hands of manipulators. Besides, the government鈥檚 inability to bolster domestic agriculture for increased production, over-reliance on food import, failure to timely import food, inadequate social safety net measures and ineffective monetary policy are reasons for the rising food insecurity.聽
Such a dismal food security situation questions the government鈥檚 development rhetoric and shows the hollowness of the development model that the government has pursued over the years. The authorities must, therefore, abandon its rhetoric and ensure an adequate supply of food items by increasing domestic production and facilitating timely food import. The government must also enhance social safety programmes to cover all vulnerable people. The authorities must also enhance their monitoring to ensure a stable market.
