Food problem in Bangladesh

Food problem

Food is a basic necessity for the existence of human being. Bangladesh is mainly an agriculture country. But inspire of that, one of the most recent and alarming problems she is facing is food problems. 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.

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.

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

Loss of crops 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.

Food problem

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 contribution to the shortage of food supply in our country.

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

Decline 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 run, 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 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.

Food problem

Food problem has become a serious challenge in Bangladesh. The following measures can be taken to increase production of foods in Bangladesh. The Govt. should emphasize on the increase of production of food by applying scientific agricultural method. Proper steps should be taken to control population explosion. Cultivation should be provided with loans on easy terms.

Long term plans and preventive measures should be introduction to reduce the damage  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 be introduced to grow more food. We can also change our eating habit and replace rice with wheat, potatoes etc. which grow abundantly in our country.