Asjadul Kibria
| Published: November 25, 2023 8:29:09 p.m.
The food system is “a sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain,” according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The food value chain includes the supply of inputs and production of crops, livestock, fish and other agricultural products for transportation, processing, retail, wholesale and preparation of food for consumption and disposal. According to the IFPRI definition, food systems also include political environments and cultural customs around food. Thus, in an ideal food system, people have better access to nutritious, healthy, safe and sufficient food in a productive and efficient manner. Food production must also be environmentally sustainable, climate-smart and inclusive. In short, an efficient food system is essential to ensure food security, which involves the availability of adequate food supplies at global and national levels, as well as adequate nutrition and well-being.
Clearly, many countries, including Bangladesh, have not yet developed an ideal food system to deal with the various risks involved. Mitigating food system risks is a significant challenge and requires a comprehensive understanding of the multiple dimensions of the system. Although Bangladesh achieved self-sufficiency in rice production in the late 1990s and many other food products like fish, vegetables and fruits in the last decade, it still has some way to go to browse.
The INFER framework or index identified the extent of food system risks in the region’s counties by calculating each country’s overall food system risk score. The higher the overall score, the riskier the country’s food system. The overall score is calculated by giving equal weight to the products of the three risk dimensions: (i) hazard and exposure, (ii) vulnerability and (iii) adaptive capacity. There are three main categories of hazards and exposures: natural, economic and sociopolitical. There are six common categories for the other two risk dimensions called vulnerability and adaptive capacity. These are: availability, access, use, stability, action and sustainability. In all categories of the three risk dimensions, there are 41 components such as drought, water stress, food price inflation, financial system, etc. Overall, INFER examines and determines risks for three food system outcomes. These are: (i) human health and nutrition; (ii) shared prosperity; and (iii) ecosystem health and sustainability.
The result of the newly introduced index has crucial implications for countries like Bangladesh, for understandable reasons. The index showed that Afghanistan faced the highest risk in its overall food system last year, followed by Pakistan and Iran respectively. Sri Lanka became the fourth country on the list of general food system risks, followed by Turkmenistan and Papua New Guinea. India and Bangladesh rank seventh and eighth, respectively, in the index, followed by Mongolia and Myanmar. Bangladesh scored 46.16 in the index. For example, five of the top ten countries facing higher risks to their food systems last year were from South Asia.
Compared to previous years, the situation in Bangladesh indicates an improvement in terms of risk to the food system. The country’s overall risk has decreased by around 11.74 percent over the past two decades, since 2000 to be precise. The risk dimension of hazard and exposure also decreased by about 15 percent, due to lack of adaptive capacity, which dropped by 13.20 percent. Vulnerability risk has also declined by 6.76 percent since 2000. All these encouraging trends reflect the country’s persistent efforts to ensure food security and reduce hunger and malnutrition.
One can also analyze the risk status of the country’s food system using the Global Hunger Index (GHI). Bangladesh ranked 81st out of 125 countries in 2023. In South Asia, Bangladesh is well ahead of Pakistan (102), India (111) and Afghanistan (114), but far behind Sri Lanka (60). ) and Nepal (69).
For Bangladesh, the GHI score is 19.0, which indicates that the overall hunger situation in the country is at the late stage of moderate level. If the situation deteriorates slightly, we will move to the first stage of the severe group. There is therefore no room for complacency when it comes to reducing hunger and food system risks.
Bangladesh must therefore work persistently to reduce risks to the food system. In this regard, the National Food and Nutritional Security Policy (NFNSP), adopted in 2020, is essential. The policy has five main objectives: (a) ensuring the availability of safe and nutritious foods for healthy diets and (b) improving access to safe and nutritious foods at an affordable price. The policy also prioritizes adequate supply and consumption of diverse, safe and nutritious foods. An action plan to achieve the objectives was also developed.
Current geopolitical tensions, mainly due to the war between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, already pose a significant threat to global food security. Food system risk could also increase in the coming days if a coordinated mitigation mechanism is not developed. Furthermore, improving the food system is a daunting task that requires concerted efforts, including massive investments and trade cooperation. This column will focus on the subject next week.
asjadulk@gmail.com
