Dhaka Times Desk Bangladesh is self-sufficient in food. The people of Bangladesh can buy food grains at a lower price than other countries in the world, etc., but the position of Bangladesh is 81st in the World Food Security Index!
It is known that Bangladesh is far behind in terms of food security. Bangladesh is at the lowest level even in South Asia. The list was compiled by the Intelligence Unit of Britain's influential periodical The Economist based on three indicators – people's purchasing power, food availability and quality and safety. The research unit published a report in this regard after reviewing the food security situation of 105 countries of the world.
Bangladesh got 34.6 points out of 100 in food security index. Bangladesh ranks 81st among 105 countries on this point. Sri Lanka is the most advanced among South Asian countries. Their position is 62nd in the list with 47.4 points. Besides, India is 66th (score 40.5), Pakistan 75th (score 38.5), Myanmar 78th (score 37.2) and Nepal 79th (score 35.2) in this list. Information Daily Yugantar.
The Economist's Intelligence Unit reviewed 25 factors across three indicators to compile the list. In the analysis of people's purchasing power index, the important things are - what part of the total expenditure of the family is spent on food procurement, the rate of people below the poverty line, what is the national production per capita, the cost of importing agricultural products, the activities to create food security and how is the ability of the farmer to provide money in this sector, etc. Factors significant in food availability index analysis are - adequacy of supply, government expenditure on agricultural development, agricultural infrastructure, constraints in food production and political instability etc. In the analysis of food quality and safety indicators, one of the things to be noticed is - diversity in food, nutritional quality, protein content and food safety etc. And in determining the score, zero is the lowest and 100 is the highest.
In these analyses, Bangladesh's three strengths in ensuring food security have emerged in the intelligence unit's report. These are nutritional quality (score 100), assurance of agricultural production (94) and access to credit for farmers (75), five factors have been shown to be viable – cost of importing agricultural products (score 74.8), food security (74), efforts to ensure food security (50). , agricultural infrastructure (41.7) and share of total household expenditure on food procurement (26), but the Economist Intelligence Unit found major weaknesses in eight areas. Lack of diversity in food (score 00), low government allocation for agricultural research and development (00), low average annual production per capita (2.1), low availability of non-vegetarian food (12.3), high rate of living below the poverty line (18.2 ), political instability (22.2) and supply shortages (22.4) among others. The report also showed that overall Bangladesh's purchasing power score is 33, accessibility score is 37.6 and food quality and safety score is 30.4. It also shows that the price inflation in food products in 12 years from 2000 to 2012 is about 180 percent.
Rich countries are naturally ahead in ensuring food security. The top three on the list are the United States (score 89.5), Denmark (88.1) and France (86.8), with sub-Saharan Africa at the bottom of the list. The last three positions are Burundi (score 22.9), Chad (20.2) and DR Congo (18.4).
Analysis of the report shows that Bangladesh is lagging behind in terms of food security. Although the rulers always talk big, the real picture is revealed in this report. Therefore, common people think that the government should pay special attention to the issue of food safety by analyzing the issues. Otherwise, Bangladesh will remain at that bottom forever.
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