One in five households food insecure: BBS

One in every five households in Bangladesh experienced food insecurity, according to the primary findings of a government survey -- conflicting with the government's claims of ensuring food security for all.

Of them, 0.83 percent of the households were severely food insecure, while 21.08 percent went through moderate food insecurity, according to the survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

The survey "Food Security Statistics 2023" was carried out in June on 29,760 households across the country.

The key findings of the survey were disseminated at a programme at the BBS office yesterday. The full report of the survey will be published a few months later.

The survey comes at a time when inflation continues to stay high, leaving low-income and limited-income groups to grapple with making ends meet.

The state-run statistical agency measured food security based on answers to eight types of questions from the participants.

The questions were whether: they 'went without eating for a whole day', they 'skipped a meal', their 'household ran out of food', they ate less than they should, ate healthy and nutritious food, and were worried about not having enough food to eat.

Those who responded positively to all eight questions fall under the severely food insecure category, said Shahnaz Arefin, secretary to the Statistics and Informatics Division.

Rangpur division has the highest number of households suffering from moderate or severe food insecurity: 29.98 percent. This was followed by Sylhet

(26.48 percent) and Mymensingh (26 percent).

Dhaka division has the lowest number of households experiencing food insecurity: 16.40 percent.

Rural areas saw higher food insecurity than urban areas: 24.12 percent and 20.77 percent respectively.

Around 11.45 percent of households in the city corporation area suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity, according to the survey.

About 24 percent of Bangladesh's population was food insecure, according to a survey report of the World Food Programme that was released in August last year.

"It's alarming that a government survey comes up with such a percentage of food insecure people," said Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling.

The country is still facing a food price shock.

Moreover, the economy is going through a crisis and that is hindering job opportunities, he said.

"People need jobs to ensure food security."

He, however, contested the household figure of Rangpur division.

The BBS Household and Expenditure survey said that poverty has declined in Rangpur, but this food security survey showed that this division has the highest number of households facing food insecurity.

"It's inconsistent," said Raihan, also a professor at the University of Dhaka's department of economics.

The rise in food insecurity in the rural areas has reasons, he said.

"Before, most of the producers in the rural areas were the consumers as well. Now, many of them have become consumers only -- they are no longer producers," Raihan added.

The wastage of food from the production level to the consumption level varies from 31 percent to 50 percent, said Md Shahidul Alam, director general of the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit at the food ministry, at the event.

"If such wastage could be minimised, food insecurity could be addressed to a large extent."