Just how do we ensure food security in post-pandemic Bangladesh?

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Bangladesh is something sector led economy, where 52.8 percent of the GDP originates from the service sector, accompanied by 29.6 percent from industry and 12.6 percent from agriculture. Since independence, the contribution of agriculture to GDP has been decreasing as time passes. That does not mean that the quantity of agriculture production or its significance is reducing, rather that the GDP of Bangladesh is increasing quicker compared to the rate of growth of the agriculture sector. Currently, the Bangladesh agriculture sector is making 38.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of rice and 1.25 MMT of wheat against its twelve-monthly demand of 32 MMT of rice and 5.5 MMT of wheat. While our rice production is enough to meet up local demand, the excess demand for wheat is often met through imports.

This season, Covid-19 has hit the economy hard. In the over 8 weeks of "general holiday" (lockdown), the poverty rate has increased, standing at 35 percent in June 2020, compared to 24.3 percent in 2016, in line with the Centre for Policy Dialogue. In the households stricken by poverty through the pandemic, income earnings and savings have come to a standstill. According to a recently available study, the Covid-19 pandemic has potentially reduced average monthly income of lower income groups from Tk 15,000 monthly to Tk 3,700 monthly.

A significant number of expatriate worker's families also have suffered huge losses within their fixed income from remittances within the last few months, because so many expatriate staff are under lockdown in host countries and are not having the ability to earn, and much more have lost their jobs and also have been forced to come back home. Due to this fact, the purchasing power of the families have been significantly reduced aswell. Therefore, the question of food security in Bangladesh isn't a matter of the available stock of food grains in the united states, but rather about the power of the masses to get food grains during and after the pandemic.

If the existing countrywide floods are prolonged for a lot longer, they could turn out to be a significant threat for the production of food grains in the upcoming agriculture season in Bangladesh. It has an adverse effect on poultry, dairy, fisheries and livestock production aswell. Through the lockdown period, farmers had to market eggs and milk at less than their production costs so that you can survive, but this made them lose their sustainability. Most of the vegetable supply chains were also considerably disrupted and are under extreme stress.

According to a recent study conducted by the meals and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, farm gate prices in Bangladesh have dropped for eggs (-18 percent), broilers (-15 percent), day-old layer chicks (-75 percent) and day-old broiler chicks (-90 percent), with about 50 percent of eggs and 70 percent of broilers unsold at farms. Moreover, 40 to 50 percent of newly hatched day-old chicks were unsold and destroyed. About 50 percent of broiler farms are thought to be out of business already and so are unlikely to risk starting a fresh crop. As a result, around 70,000 farmers will be affected. Layer farms will gradually turn off if low egg prices persist, and hatcheries and feed mills will face losses as well.

A survey by Khaddo Odhikar Bangladesh discovered that 87 percent of the indegent (50 million) persons of Bangladesh already are in a significant food crisis as a result of coronavirus situation. Therefore, ensuring food security ought to be a priority for the federal government and relevant national and multilateral agencies, especially since overall market activity across the country was already severely affected due to Covid-19 restrictions and current floods.

The government has recently taken certain steps to manage the challenges of agriculture production and food security in the coming days. The federal government stimulus package, that was announced in the beginning of the pandemic in Bangladesh, includes Tk 5,000 crore worth of soft loans with a six month grace period at four percent interest (reduced from ten percent) to different agricultural sectors, including seasonal flower and fruit, fisheries, poultry, dairy and livestock. However, this excludes the crops and grains sectors.

Other support from the government includes the waiving of advance taxes on feed for fisheries, livestock and poultry and the easing of Letter of Credit (LC) margins for essential commodities. Instructions are also issued on prioritised customs clearance and movement from ports of food, feed and allied products, and non permanent port-side storage facilities have been created. No official restrictions were put on the transport of food, feed and agricultural inputs and processing accessories in the united states, even through the lockdown.

However, there are still several possible effects that the pandemic could have on the meals supply chain during the upcoming agriculture season. There exists a threat of shortage of labour because of travel restrictions and concern with infection, shortage of inputs like seeds, fertiliser, pesticide etc due to disrupted international trade, especially imports, and limited capacity of farmers to store harvested crops. We're able to also be potentially confronted with factory or facility shutdowns, port restrictions and congestion, leading to the spoilage of perishables vegetables and fruits, and increasing food waste because of a too little refrigerated storage. Finally, there could also be delays of retrieval in capital investment.

All of these undesireable effects may bring about reduced incomes for the farmers, the destruction of supply chains because of panic buying, restricted usage of food for low income groups and undernutrition of vulnerable groups. However, there are specific policies that can be followed to reduce these impacts and ensure food security. The government should immediately focus on increasing coverage of food distribution and offer and enhancing the benefits associated with country-wide social protection programmes. They also needs to collaborate with the international community to avert food shortages and price hikes by ensuring free trade and strengthening regional mechanisms for food security. It ought to be noted that both to three million deaths in the Bengal famine of 1943 were due to food supply disruptions, not a insufficient food availability, so it is crucial that the supply chains continue to function effectively.

Farmers and agricultural workers should also be contained in the government's assistance packages and any social protection programmes that are addressing the crisis. The government's substantial agricultural stimulus package should start giving loans and grants on an urgent basis, and primary agriculture inputs like seed, fertilisers, pesticide etc should be made available at affordable costs.

Over time, we should focus on accelerating the movement towards the mechanisation of agriculture, technology-based farming, value chain development and automation. Through the pandemic and beyond, we should inspire direct marketing through online platforms to facilitate trading of produce, avoid food waste and mitigate lack of farmers' profits by reducing multiple layers of intermediaries. Cold chains ought to be established across districts aswell to lengthen the shelf life of more fresh vegetables, fruits and other produce. Additionally, the government should strengthen district-level food price volatility monitoring activities to control any unethical hikes of food prices.

It really is heartening to see that the Bangladesh government has taken strong steps to protect the economy from the undesireable effects of Covid-19, offering recovery packages worth more than a trillion Taka to different sectors. However, more attention is necessary for the agriculture sector so that you can ensure food security for all in post-pandemic Bangladesh. Due to the prolonged floods along with Covid-19, our farmers and low-income groups could are more susceptible to hunger in the near future. 
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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