Bangladesh ranks lowest in South Asia

Bangladesh’s food security situation has deteriorated for the fourth year in a row, primarily due to the country’s poor performance in ensuring quality and safe food, good use of natural resources, and implementing climate-smart agriculture.

The tenth annual Global Food Security Index (GFSI) – published by The Economist Intelligence Unit under the annual baseline September 2021 – placed Bangladesh at 84th position among 113 countries globally, and at the bottom among South Asian nations.

Bangladesh scored 49.1 points out of 100 in the latest index, a 1.4 points drop from 50.5 in 2020. It scored 50.8 points in 2019 and 53.0 points in 2018, indicating a gradually deteriorating situation. This is the tenth iteration of GFSI, and the EIU has been publishing it since 2012.

The country achieved its highest score of 53.4 points in this index back in 2017. The GFSI – in collaboration with Corteva Agriscience – based the ranking and overall points on four categories: affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience.

Bangladesh scored the lowest 36.8 points in the natural resources and resilience category, ranking 111th. In the quality and safety category, the country scored 45.5 points and ranked 99th, followed by 48.8 points and 82nd place in affordability, and 58.1 points and 55th place in availability categories.

Bangladesh last in South Asia

Bangladesh ranked last among the South Asian countries assessed by the latest GFSI. Neighbouring India is 13 notches ahead of Bangladesh with a global rank of 71th. Followed by Myanmar which ranked 72nd, Pakistan 75th, Sri Lanka 77th and Nepal ranked 79th.

Maldives and Bhutan however are not on the GFSI.

Ireland, Austria, United Kingdom, Finland, and Switzerland achieved the top five spots in the food security index, while Burundi, Yemen, Mozambique, Sudan and Malawi became ranked the lowest.

Bangladesh slips in hunger index too

Bangladesh slipped by one notch to 76th position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021, published on Thursday. Sharing the same position with Nepal, Bangladesh scored 19.1 out of 100, indicating a “moderate” level of hunger in the country.

The index is a tool to measure and track hunger, developed by the NGO Concern Worldwide and German humanitarian aid agency Welthungerhilfe.

In 2020, the South Asian country had ranked 75th out of 107 countries in the GHI scoring 20.4, while in 2019, it ranked 88th among 117 countries. Though the country slipped by a notch, its scores have improved, reaching from serious to moderate hunger level during the period.

Despite the improvement, Bangladesh slipped in the index because it was outperformed by other nations in the index.

A score of 10-19.9 points indicates moderate hunger, 20-34.9 indicates serious hunger, 35-49.9 indicates alarming and 50 and up indicates extremely alarming. Meanwhile, less than 9.9 points indicates a low level of hunger in a country.

The index is calculated on the basis of four categories - the under-five mortality rate, prevalence of wasting in children, prevalence of stunting in children and proportion of undernourished.

On the issue, Food Secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum told The Business Post, “Bangladesh was suffering from malnutrition for years, and the Covid-19 pandemic also hampered accessibility. We will provide our comments in detail after fully analysing the index.”

What the experts say

Agriculturists and economists attributed the gradual decline in Bangladesh’s food security to misinformation centring food production, lack of crop diversification, putting more emphasis on carbohydrates, lack of research and market analysis, and inadequate enforcement of market monitoring laws.

AB Mirza Azizul Islam, economist and former advisor to the caretaker government told The Business Post, “We need accurate information to ensure food safety. If Bangladesh achieves record production, why does this country import a large amount of rice, wheat and onions?

“I have serious doubts about our statistics.”

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) says, Bangladesh produced 3.85 core tonnes of rice in Fiscal Year 2020-21 – the highest-ever production in the country. During the same period, the country imported 13.53 lakh tonnes of rice, government data shows.

“I do not think Bangladesh has a shortage of food in the market, but the high prices of essential food items are preventing a large number of people from purchasing food, Azizul said, adding, “A large number of people are still unemployed and they are living below the poverty line.

“So the government must do something for them. It may take up a scheme to support people and ensure proper monitoring for disbursement of the allocation.”

Food Secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum recommended holding household surveys every three years to collect accurate information for ensuring food safety in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, academicians emphasised on food diversification for improving in the GFSI’s safety and quality category.

Sattar Mandal, former vice chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said, “We always focus on rice, onion, edible oil and wheat market, but we also have to focus on nutrition to ensure quality and food safety.

“Research focused on ensuring nutrition and safe food is an urgent need.”

He continued, “Some crops have surplus production such as potatoes, and we face shortages of some crops. A proper assessment and research is important for deciding what crop needs to be cultivated on what amount of land.

“But at first, we need proper data of the private sector’s stock. We do not know how much food the farmers have in stock, and how much is in the possession of millers. We do not even have any specific market analysis.”

He added that it is one of the main reasons for the uncertainty surrounding the food market. “There are multiple laws in place to monitor the market, but those witness little implementation.”

Mandal recommended automation of the agriculture sector, as it may help to reduce the cost of production. This in turn would help the consumers purchase food items for a lower price, he said.

Bangladesh positioned 111th in the GFSI’s resilience category. Addressing the issue, climate experts emphasised on integrated initiatives and community level resilience to improve the food security situation.

Climate experts claimed that the projects are not being implemented in an integrated way, and coordination among the authorities is poor.

M Zakir Hossain Khan, a climate expert and executive director of Change Initiatives, said, “The government has taken many initiatives, but not in an integrated way. The needs of one region are different from the needs of others.

“For example, the hill tracts need water, but the coastal region needs saline free water. We took on many projects to build resilience, but we did not think about community, household and individual resilience.”

He continued, “Coordination is also needed among government departments. A district administration sometimes has no knowledge about projects taken on by an upazila administration from the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED).

“Meanwhile that district administration might be implementing another project in the same area to deal with the same issue. Youth engagement and training to build capacity is important along with proper coordination, and of course the governance must be improved too.”