Ensuring food security in Bangladesh
Md Bayazid Khan :
The government made serious efforts in the last decade to increase food grains production that resulted in the rise of substantial amounts of food grains production. Considerable success was also achieved in vegetable, poultry, fruit and fish production. But this was not enough for attaining food security as the country still has to import substantial amounts of food grains every year. The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, armed conflicts in different countries and the climate change impacts have compelled the government to focus on ensuring food security by any means.
Once when travelling to the highways we could find vast areas with lush greenery or golden yellow paddy fields. In winter, these areas could also be found bunches of different colored varieties of vegetable fields. But the scenario has changed completely nowadays. Cultivable lands of the both sides of the highways are replaced with industries and habitats because of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Therefore, arable lands for cultivation have been shrinking day by day. On the other hand, soil of the adjacent arable lands has also been losing its nutrient and fertile quality due to unplanned industrialisation and urbanisation. Contamination of air, water and soil simultaneously due to industrialisation resulting in adjacent cultivable lands of industrial zones lose their propensity of providing nutrients to plants and thus the plants lose their natural food forming capacity. As a result the country has been facing shortages of domestic agro production.
A global food crisis is fuelled by the impacts of Russia-Ukraine war with the other armed conflicts, the climate change (heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, cyclones, tidal surges, droughts, floods etc) and the pandemic also responsible for food shortages in Bangladesh.
As needs of food grains are sky-high but domestic production can’t meet demands as well as import of food grains becoming cost effective and time consuming too therefore the government is emphasising on ensuring food security by any means.
So, considering food security a vital challenge that Bangladesh is facing like other countries in the world, the first and foremost responsibility of both the government and people are to emphasize on increasing domestic agricultural production and avoiding misuses of food as the way of addressing the challenge. Regarding this the following issues need to be considered seriously by all concerned:
As natural calamities cannot be resisted therefore there is the need to focus on short- and long-term adaptation measures to cope with the adverse climate change impacts such as floating agriculture, saline and submergence tolerant varieties of paddy, digging of mini ponds and restoration or recovery of canals and water reservoirs for irrigation during drought and saving water during monsoon etc. Drought tolerant rice variety BRRI dhan66 and dates cultivation in the rain fed drought prone areas must be encouraged. Due to the severity of climate change impacts, drought prone northern parts of the country need to bring under drought resilient crops cultivation under the guidance of WFP that has been applying for the Guatemala and African countries. Moreover, restored and renovated canals, rivers and water reservoirs might be brought under fishing or fish-duck farming. Farmers of Char areas might be encouraged to modern livestock farming.
Prohibition of using cultivable lands for industrialisation or urbanisation must be ensured. Land owners, farmers and sharecroppers are to be motivated to launch co-operative farming in agriculture, fishery and livestock production ensuring them getting complicacy free loan and agro-machineries with easy terms and conditions.
The government may encourage dwellers in the Ashrayan Projects for home gardening and integration of poultry and livestock activities to home gardening. In addition, home gardening or rooftop gardening with very small-scale poultry or livestock activities might be compulsory for every family. Moreover, initiatives need to be taken for launching co-operative farming of fish, poultry and livestock activities in the Ashrayan Projects.
Encouraging farmers to use modern agro-machineries and organic and non-organic fertilisers and insecticides for production with providing frequent support and training for using modern methods of cultivation by the agriculture department.
The government needs to ensure fair and rational prices of produced products of farmers to encourage them to the cultivation process. Regarding this the government may take responsibility for marketing their products or arrange direct purchases of products from farmers by chain shop owners or government concerned marketing authority. In addition, modern warehouse or cold storage facilities at Union level and smooth transportation facilities like mango train or cattle train service might be ensured so that perishable food items may be preserved or transported to the different places of the country respectively.
The government may motivate local and foreign investors to invest in establishing agro-based industries in the areas renowned for the particular agro-products that may be used as main raw materials for the industries.
Misusing or wastage of food at restaurants or houses and also in the community centres or households during celebrating festivals or occasions must be banned by making laws of taking punitive actions or imposing fines against all concerned. Moreover, small or micro units of weights might be introduced to sell food items including meats, small fishes etc. at retail stages. In addition, selling pieces of sweets, fruits, fishes etc. might be encouraged.
(The writer works for primary
education).
