Food Problems in Bangladesh

Food Problems in Bangladesh

Introduction: Food is a basic necessity for the existence of human beings. Bangladesh is mainly an agricultural country. But in spite of that, one of the most recent and alarming problems is food problem. The quantity of food produced by her is far inadequate to meet the demand of her large population. As a result, there is a big shortage of food every year.

Causes of food problem in Bangladesh :

Large population growth: Increasing population is the major cause of food problem in Bangladesh. According to the theory expounded by Malthus, population tends to increase geometrically whereas food production tends to increase only arithmetically. Although food grain production in our country has been increasing steadily, the gap between demand and supply remains significantly wide.

Non-use of modern scientific method: Our agricultural system is still back-dated and unscientific. The farmers still depend on their age-old method of cultivation. This is hampering the productivity of our land.

Natural calamities: The loss of crops owing to natural calamities is a recurring occurrence in Bangladesh. Every year, a huge amount of crops are damaged by floods, cyclones, droughts, excessive rainfall etc.

Decrease of cultivable land: Every year Bangladesh is losing about 80 thousand hectares of her cultivable land because of housing, setting up industries, schools, constructing roads and other infrastructural development. This is also contributing to the shortage of food supply in our country.

Hoarding of food-grains: There are some dishonest people who store food grains with a view to making huge profits. This causes a sharp decrease in the supply of food in the market and consequently causes a food crisis. Besides these, fragmentation of cultivable land, lack of irrigation facilities, poverty, etc. are also responsible for the food crisis in Bangladesh.

Impact of food problem in Bangladesh: Dechne or crisis in food production in Bangladesh has brought great distress to the people, especially to the poor people. The obvious result of food crisis is starvation, which in the long tun, leads to famine. For example, the famines of 1943-44 and 1973-74 may be mentioned. Moreover, when there is a crisis for food, its price rises and gives rise to inflation. Again, in order to meet the demand for food supply, our country has to import a huge amount of food grains from abroad with a heavy cost of foreign exchange. Thus it is also seriously hampering the economic growth of our country.

Means to solve food problem in Bangladesh: Food problem pas become a serious challenge in Bangladesh. The following measures can be taken to increase production of foods in Bangladesh. The government should emphasize on the increase of production of food by applying scientific agricultural methods. Proper steps should be taken to control population explosion. Cultivators should be provided with loans on easy terms. Long term plans and preventive measures should be introduced to reduce the damages by natural disasters. Any syndicate activities to store food grains should be suppressed boldly.

Finally, irrigation facilities should be expanded and co-operative farming should lie introduced to grow more food. We can also change our eating habits and replace nee with wheat, potatoes, etc. which grow abundantly in our country.

Conclusion: Today not only Bangladesh but also the whole world is suffering from food problems. To attain food sufficiency, co-ordinate and pragmatic effort is necessary. We all should work together to make the ‘Grow More food’
campaign a success