Strategic Approaches to Food Security in Bangladesh

Abstract

his paper tends to present an overview of food security status, its link with poverty, the current policies and programs of the government and to suggest some strategic options to improve access to food for the vulnerable community of Bangladesh. Macro level secondary data on the behavior of food prices and poverty situation is collected from a number of periodicals and reports. Then after manual processing of the raw data a qualitative analysis is made to evaluate current status of food security and strategic actions of the government. Through the qualitative analysis it is found that food security system remains susceptible till today because of major production shortfalls, inadequate food availability, limited coverage of safety net programs, inefficient distribution and vulnerability due to natural disasters and fluctuation in prices. Thus food security system is very weak and ineffective for poor peoples who live below the poverty line. In this consequence, government of Bangladesh must play a significant role in attaining effective food security for all by undertaking some strategic actions.