Regional Food Security Experience: Lessons Learnt from India and Timor Leste
Food Security in Bangladesh 2
Food Security Status and Challenges

Food security situation in Bangladesh has improved, especially on the availability side4, and further improvements on access and utilisation, to be sustainable and large-scale, needs renewed efforts from the government, civil society (including media) and the development partners.
Records say in 70s’, 70% people were under the food consumption poverty line. Today this is down to under half of the population.
Today, though people are not dying, they are going hungry and becoming stunted with reduced mental and physical capacity. They are suffering. The hungry population of over 60 million people is larger than most other global cases- the third largest poor population in any country after China and India5. Nearly half of Bangladesh’s children are underweight, making it one of the most severe cases of malnutrition in the world. While Bangladesh has definitely got more food than it had thirty years back, yet almost half of Bangladesh is still far from being food secure. The World Bank and GoB-UN in their respective reports on MDGs, put the target of 34% children being underweight as non-attainable at present rates of progress. Much will need to be done to achieve the 2015 MDG target of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Demographic changes in upcoming years are likely to affect poverty and hunger in adverse ways. While poverty is an overall denominator of this food insecurity in the country, the additional intensifiers are disability (gender, age, and physical challenge) and location .Issues of governance and accountability further thwart attempts at providing targeted safety nets and price stabilisation. Achieving the MDG targets within the next decade will require Bangladesh to develop and implement more ambitious and effective strategies. Speeding up per capita income growth and pursuing targeted safety net programmes are needed for the expansion of household food intake. A comprehensive programme to address hunger would include interventions in the following areas:
• Promoting food security by sustaining strong growth of domestic food production and implementing a liberalized regime for food imports
• Designing and implementing interventions to promote food security?
• Promoting change in food habits for increasing nutritional intake of vulnerable
• Promoting improved infant feeding practices, including breast-feeding practices
• Supporting maternal schooling and hygienic practices
• Improving access to safe drinking water, especially by addressing the threat of arsenic
• contamination of underground water
• Improving access to sanitation
• Improving access to basic health facilities
• Promoting partnership among the Government, private sector and NGOs

Aspects and Issues of Food and Nutritional Security

Availability:
On national scale, Bangladesh has obtained food through domestic production, imports and food aid. The first two sources have increased while food aid decreases7.
The role of food production in food security cannot be overemphasised given the country’s low income, recurrent natural calamities and increasing international prices of food commodities. The draft National Food Policy and the National Agricultural Policy promote attaining food-grain selfsufficiency as well a reasonable non-grain sufficiency.
The latest figures from the government put cereal food production levels (including maize) for
2004/5 at 27.35 million MTs8. However although rice productions are largely sufficient, selfsufficiency in other food-items is still to be achieved. For example among non-cereal food, 70% of the pulse requirements get imported and Bangladesh produces only 34% of its edible oil. Here we are still talking about effective demand and not really that required9. Estimation of requirement, demand and supply (availability) of other food items- vegetables, pulses, fruit etc should be systematically carried out and the National Food Policy, the Import Policy and the
Agricultural and the Nutrition Policy should address these requirements in a planned, integrated fashion. Growth of crops will be compromised (with no changes in current practices) by agricultural land decreasing at 1% per annum10 and the impact of climate changes, which are still being understood. Any growth must come from increased productivity and that demands higher investment in agricultural research and education11 in collaboration with agencies like FAO and the World Bank.
Estimates on Food Gap, both present and future vary. While the government figures do not show any food gap, self-sufficiency ratio12 calculated as per FAO’s method puts this self-sufficiency at about 90%. (See the box and the figure below.)
Self Sufficiency Ratio (SSR)
The self-sufficiency ratio expresses magnitudes of production in relation to domestic utilisation.
It is another way of expressing the food deficiency in the country. SSR is defined as:
SSR = Production/(production + imports - exports) * 100
Based on the official and private food grain production and import figures the food grain SSR for
Bangladesh is gradually declining (figure 1). The lowest self-sufficiency rate is found in 2005, which could be attributed to the crop damage during the severe flood in 2004.
Considering the estimates on food grain gap and self-sufficiency ratio it can be deduced that
Bangladesh has a food grain gap of 1 to 2 million metric tons and an average SSR of about 90 to
91 percent.
According to the projections of BARC (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council), in 2015 there will be a surplus of 1.213 m MT of food grains but an overall deficit of all others food items. Still according to another estimate, at the present population and agricultural growth rate, the food gap could be upto 5 million mt14. This variation in estimations of present and future Food Gap underscores the need for a more thorough, precise and regular tracking.
There are several factors for lack of a consensual estimation of the food gap. One of these is the use of different required dietary calorie intake. While the government assumes 452 grams of food grains per capita, FAO recommends 504 gms. Another factor is the size of population taken for calculation. Also, estimates on availability and consumption and the related food gap do not include the use of rice in industries for e.g. as starch and in restaurants, bakeries and fast food places. Yet another is the estimation of wastage and use of the food grains for poultry and cattle feed. Present methods of estimating these are based on a rather out-dated 1991 report and need to be reviewed. Access:
While the accurate determination of food gap is a challenge, lack of access is largely responsible for over 60 million people going hungry everyday. This is primarily due to a lack of purchasing power (poverty), although there are other less central factors with a seasonality and spatial dimension-market access and market functionality along with gender and levels of human assets.
Considerable intra-household disparity and discrimination in food consumption persists. Girls and women are overwhelmingly more malnourished than boys and men15.
The World Bank MDG report has an important analytical insight into the correlation between levels of poverty and that of child malnutrition. It says that Bangladesh has far higher levels of child malnutrition than would be expected at its levels of per capita GDP. This further underscores that access to the available food is seriously limited.
There are approximately 27 food security and social safety net programmes in the country16 but the coverage is inadequate.

National Food Security Policy and Plan:
Over 700,000 MT of food was distributed through various food-based safety net programmes in
2004/05 PFDS. Food aid resources supplied about 30% of total PFDS distribution in years of normal harvest from mid nineties through 2001/02 and a there is a danger that decline in food aid could ultimately lead to a cut in targeted distribution programs that increases real incomes of poor households and thus their access to food.

Utilisation:
The challenge of nutritional security is much bigger than that of attaining the minimum calories.
It has the quality and safety aspects which merit greater attention.
While the average (national level) calorie level food security has improved, the gains in nutritional intake have not been so impressive and large-scale malnutrition persists. Consumption of protein has remained practically unchanged. 80% of Dietary Energy Supply of Bangladeshis still comes from cereal. The per capita consumption of meat and eggs by the urban consumers is almost equal to the desirable, but for rural consumers, consumption of these items falls far short of the requirement. The high consumption of cereals but low intake of pulses and other animalbased proteins results in a high level of anaemia and other micro nutrient deficiencies.
Substantial improvements `in the Bangladesh diet will require greater diversification of agricultural production. Paul and Ninno20 have analysed and concluded that production of most non-rice crops is economically efficient. Rice yields must be improved to facilitate expansion of non-rice crop areas while maintaining adequate rice production. Similarly, storage loss should be reduced to reduce the risk to perishable products like fruits and vegetables. However, it must be admitted that constraints to diversification need much better understanding.
WFP VAM (Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping) tells that correlation between malnutrition and poverty may not hold. Additional and often stronger determinants of this may be lack of awareness and inappropriate cultural practices21. Given the weak link between income and consumption of micro-nutrition, increases in households` income without nutrition education may not result in major improvements in nutrition.
Poor access to water and sanitation and increasing arsenic contamination (which is linked to the over-exploitation of water tables) may further aggravate this.

Institutional Challenge:
Food security is a multi-sectoral, multi-ministerial issue. There is a need to develop an integrated policy and action plan, bringing together all the diverse players and stakeholders as well as making them accountable to contributing their bit to the overall challenge of improving Food
Security. National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme, the new FAO-FPMU project is expected to provide a strategic lead on developing this approach

Strategic Options:
Faced with the challenges of an increasing population22, natural subsidence (on account of the ascent of the Himalayas) decreasing availability of agricultural land, increasing costly food prices, the options before Bangladesh include:
1. Increasing productivity-an all out effort in this regard; learning from some recent experiments in rice production23. Cutting down the wastage- the yields loss in Bangladesh is colossal (30-40%).
2. Diversification of the food basket with an aim to attain minimum self-sufficiency in the noncereal food grains.
3. Strengthening analysis and monitoring of needs and Food Gap.
4. Improve access through expansion of the PFDS/ safety net programmes without compromising on the targeting and leakage. Successful interventions need to be replicated and expanded. While sustainable improvements in the food security status of the poor are welcome, as these would act as the safety ladder, but safety nets (with core focus on access to food and nutrition) are important as well. While conditional transfers (like School Feeding,
VGD), etc are useful, provisions have to be there for those who cannot participate in any conditional transfer (like the handicapped, elderly etc)
5. Improve utilisation through improving nutrition education and availability and access to safe cereal and non-cereal foods. Huge improvements in food security can be achieved through improving knowledge on food-based nutrition (right methods of cooking, balanced diet, from locally and cheaply available food stuffs).
6. Promote fortification of foodstuff as it provides a proven and cost-effective strategy of dealing with micronutrient deficiencies.

FOOD SECURITY IN BANGLADESH: FOOD AVAILABILITY

Food availability is one of the three conditions of food security as defined in the World
Food Summit. The other two conditions are access and utilization. This paper focuses on the availability of food as an essential element of the concept of food security. In addition to rice and wheat that constitute the staple food of Bangladesh, the paper deals with the production and availability issues of other major food commodities, such as potato, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and fruits, and fisheries and livestock products. Maize has not been considered as it is still a minor cereal in terms of human consumption. Availability is a function of domestic production, imports, food aids and security stock. Of these, domestic production is critical in ensuring food availability at both national and household levels. Therefore, domestic production of food grains is a major concern of every Government and all efforts are made to boost production of rice and wheat toensure food security. However, in recent years, the Government is putting additional efforts to increase production of other important food crops as well as fisheries and livestock.

1.0 Problems and Issues
1.1 Technical problems: Some of the persisting problems of increasing crop production, particularly cereal production using the available HYVs are decreasing soil productivity, inefficient water and fertilizer use, inadequate supply of quality seeds, imbalanced use of fertilizer, low labour productivity, and higher input price. These factors are restricting realization of full yield potential of HYVs, resulting in lower yield of cereals in the farmers’ field compared with much higher yield obtained in the research station. The major concern is how to reduce this yield gap by improving soil, water and labour productivity, optimizing fertilizer use and reducing input price. Declining land resources and competing demand for limited land is a major concern for future agriculture. New technological breakthrough, appropriate development interventions and a robust land use policy will be needed to address the problems.
1.2 Smallholder dairy and poultry development, which has the highest potential for reduction of rural poverty, is seriously affected due to acute shortage of feeds and veterinary services, including disease diagnostic facilities. High price of feeds and chicks, and marketing of milk in the rural areas are also limiting progress in this area. One of the critical constraints limiting development of livestock is the absolute lack of quality control. In the absence of legal and regulatory framework, livestock development in the private sector is taking place in an indiscriminate manner, which has already created serious problems of quality control in livestock products, drugs, vaccines, feeds, and breeding materials. The main problems of fisheries subsector is the internal and trans-boundary environmental degradation and manmade hazards. In recent years, complaints are heard about the degrading quality of fingerlings (not genetically true to types) affecting pond fisheries, and disease infestation in shrimp culture. Destruction of fish breeding grounds is also a major problem restricting production of native fish species. Despite the declining quality of fingerlings, pond aquaculture is reported to have reached the optimal level of production. The major challenge of the sub-sector is to harness the huge potential of inland open water fisheries.
1.3 Institutional problems: Institutional capacity of the research, extension and seed production systems in terms of facilities and human and financial resources has weakened and not geared to address the emerging problems. Weaknesses also persist in planning, coordination, monitoring, inter-institutional linkages, resource management and partnership with the private sector and NGOs. These problems are overwhelming in the livestock sub-sector compared to crops. DLS still continues to provide some of the services that can be better done by the private sector. They are doing very little in quality assurance, disease investigation and surveillance, and
1.4 Institutional capacity of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management in assessing, planning, monitoring and implementing the policy and development interventions to effectively deal with the food security issues is relatively weak due to shortage of skilled manpower. The capacity of the Food Policy and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) in terms of professional strength and skill mix is also weak. Inter-ministerial coordination and interaction on food security, research capacity and the process of having regular dialogue with the private sector and civil society are lacking. There is a need to develop the planning, coordination and monitoring capacity of the
Ministry, and improving inter-ministerial interaction to deal with the food security issues related to production, access and utilization.
1.5 Funding:
2.0 Policies/Interventions in Place
2.1 The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive agricultural policy in 2004 and started implementing the policy to address the problems of improving land, water and labour productivity by promoting balanced use of fertilizer, small scale mechanization, quality seed production, irrigation interventions in drought-prone areas, crop diversification, and improving water use efficiency and supply of agricultural inputs. These interventions are currently made through 19 development projects. Some of the institutional problems and issues are also being addressed by MOA with own resources, and efforts are being made to address the others that will require external funding. The World Bank is actively considering assistance in strengthening the agro-technology system; and JICA is reviewing the need for strengthening the Central Extension
Resources Development Institute through reorganization and redefining its charter. The process of strengthening the Seed Wing of BADC and revitalizing the Seed Certification Agency is ongoing.
2.2 The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has also prepared fisheries and livestock policy.
The National Livestock Policy is still in a draft form. It is expected to be finalized within this year.
The major policies include: (a) promotion of smallholder dairy and poultry development; (b) development of goat, buffalo and duck in high potential areas through special projects; (c) institutional reform of DLS and enactment of laws and regulations for quality control of drugs,
2.3 National Fisheries Policy was formulated in 1998, with the following objectives: (a) enhancing fisheries resources and production; (b) generating self employment for poverty alleviation of fishers; (c) meeting the demand of animal protein; (d) increase foreign exchange earnings through export of fish and fisheries products; and (e) maintain ecological balance, conserve biodiversity and improve public health. The Ministry is thinking to revisit the policy of
1998. Fisheries Department has developed a strategy and action plan to implement the 1998 fisheries policy, taking into account the likely changes to occur over the next 10 years. The policies are being implemented through a range of revenue and development projects. Revenue projects include extension service to farmers, Fish Act implementation and Jatka protection. As many as 12 development projects supported by different donors are under implementation, covering aquaculture development, Brood Bank establishment, resource development and management, supporting coastal fishing community, fish inspection and quality control and development of Shrimp Seed Certification.
2.4 The Ministry of Food and Disaster Management has formulated a National Food Security
Policy that includes access to and utilization of food, coordination, food policy analysis, shortand long-run forecast of domestic and world supply and trade. In order to achieve these objectives, a multi-donor supported project, entitled “National Food Policy Capacity
Strengthening Program” is ready to be implemented. The broad objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of FPMU for performing the new tasks of access to food, its utilization and nutrition, in addition to the current function of monitoring food availability and food assistance. The new functions also include improving inter-ministerial collaboration and coordination, food security related research and policy analysis, strengthening GO-NGO cooperation and encouraging dialogue and research capacity building of the civil society.
3.0 Project Implementation Problems
3.1 Implementation of development project is not satisfactory in all cases. The Finance
Minister himself expressed dissatisfaction with the overall progress of implementation of the development projects. There are problems, but they cannot be generalized. Some problems are project-specific. In this paper, some of the common problems are highlighted. Delayed commencement of project implementation due to administrative and procedural problems, procurement and staff recruitment problems, delayed recruitment of consultant, frequent transfer of project Directors and cost overrun are some of the general problems affecting project implementation. Weak organizational capacity of the line departments and low implementation capacity in terms of technical knowledge and managerial skills is also a major problem. In most cases, program planning at the local level, including preparation of work plan, site selection and organization of, say, demonstration and training program is poor. Record keeping and reporting
4.0 Conclusions
4.1 All policy documents on crops, livestock, fisheries and food are recently prepared in the context of changes in global and domestic social, economic and trade environment. The policies are sound, but if they are not implemented in totality, it will not be possible to achieve the food production target estimated for the year 2015. In the past, it was seen that the policies that require fundamental changes like institutional reform were always bypassed. As a result, only partial success was achieved. Achieving the millennium development target will rest on the following conditions: (i) substantial increase in public and private investment, (ii) institutional and management reform, (iii) close inter-institutional and inter-ministerial cooperation, (iv) GONGO- private sector partnership, (v) good agricultural governance, particularly at the local level, and (vi) commitment of the Government.

FOOD SECURITY AND ACCESS TO FOOD:

1.1 Agriculture sector contributed to about 22% of total GDP, out of which crop sector shared
73%, fisheries 10%, livestock 10% and forestry 7%. The growth of agriculture sector in the Fiscal Year July 97-June 98 was 3.1% which was lower than the projected growth of 4%. The food grain production in the year 2003-04 was 27.44 million tons, 2.8% higher than the historical highest record achieved last year, which met approximately 90% of national food grain requirement. The estimated production for 2004-05 is 26.9 million metric tons i.e. 2% lower than the previous year. However, food insecurity among the poor; a half of the population remained as a major concern. The growth during the Fiscal Year 2004-05 would be lower due to mainly the loss of 2.2 million tons of food grain production and other damages caused by floods.
1.2 The Government of Bangladesh has identified Food Security as an important factor contributing to its socio-economic stabilization and development. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. To discuss food security, three important aspects must be considered e.g. availability of adequate food, stability in food supplies, access to food, and nutrition security. Bangladesh have made a steady progress in the expansion of food production. But because of the increasing population pressure there has been an extensive use of land to meet the growing demand for food. Despite the growth in food production and its availability, food insecurity is still a major problem mainly because of the lack of purchasing power and thus of access to food, especially for the ultra poor community. A major portion of the rural population is landless, and as labours they depend on casual earning for their livelihood. Due to the seasonal variation in agricultural employment and limited employment opportunities in nonfarm sector, millions of people suffer from chronic and transitory food insecurity. The average Bangladesh diet is deficit in energy by about 15 percent. It is seriously unbalanced with an inadequate intake of fat, oil, fish/animal protein, fruit and vegetable.
1.3 The 1996 World Food Summit definition of food security is “food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

2. Different kinds and dimensions of food security
2.1. A very important factor in determining food security is to identify the nature of food security problem and it is common to draw a distinction between the chronic and transitory food insecurity. 2.2. When individuals or groups of people suffer from food insecurity all of the time, then they can be said to suffer from chronic food insecurity. In other words, chronic food insecurity is a continuous inadequacy of diet caused by the inability to acquire food. It affects households that persistently lack the ability either to buy or produce enough food. Hence poverty is considered the root cause of chronic food insecurity.
2.3. Transitory food insecurity occurs when households face a temporary decline in access to enough food. Transitory food insecurity can be further divided into temporary food insecurity and cyclical or seasonal food insecurity. Temporary food insecurity occurs when sudden and unpredictable shocks, such as drought or flood, affect a household’s entitlements. Famine is the worst form of transitory food insecurity, which can result from one or more causes like, flood, drought, crop failure, market failure, loss of real purchasing power by group of households etc.
For urban households, sudden unemployment may also be a cause of transitory food insecurity.
Seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is a regular pattern of inadequate access to food.
2.4. Transitory food insecurity may lead to chronic food insecurity, depending on how severe it is and how frequently it occurs. If a household suffers two drought years in a row, and is forced to sell some of its assets to survive, then it may move from a situation of transitory food insecurity to one of chronic food insecurity.
2.5. All of these types of disruption to food supplies can trigger crises by threatening a population’s access to food. They are the immediate causes of famine but these precipitating triggers lead to famine only where particular groups of people are already exposed to it.

3. Measuring Food Security and Insecurity
3.1. In order to understand better the nature and extent of the food security situation and the possible ways to improving it, it is important to distinguish between food security at the national, local, household and intra-household level. The ultimate goal is to meet the food requirements of the people at all levels.
3.2. Food security at the national level is determined by the availability of enough resources for the whole population. The most widely used indicators are quantities of available food compared with needs, as well as import requirements compared with the country’s capacity to import. 3.3. At the sub-regional levels, food security can be measured by comparing regional nutritional requirements with availability of dietary calories per head. Furthermore, the problem is increasingly being used in terms of seasonal or local level.
3.4. At the household level, food security is dependent on a household’s access to enough food. Thus it is closely linked with the issue of poverty, access, sufficiency, vulnerability and sustainability. At the household level, food security is measured by actual dietary intake of all household members using household income and expenditure surveys. It is important that changes in socio-economic and demographic variables be monitored continuously over time.
Food Security and Access to Food: Present Status and Future Perspective
Food Security in Bangladesh 18
3.5. A food poverty indicator shows the number of individuals living in a household whose access to food is sufficient to provide a dietary intake adequate for growth, activity and good health. Individual food security implies an intake of food and absorption of nutrients sufficient to meet an individual’s needs for activity, health, growth and development. The individual’s age, gender, body size, health status and level of physical activity determine the level of need.

4. Identifying the Food Insecure
4.1. Food security at the national level is perhaps best described as a satisfactory balance between food demand and food supply at reasonable prices. Food security at national level, i.e., self-reliance in food at the national level does not necessarily mean food security at the household or individual level. We have to disaggregate simply because we may be food secure at the national level, but have a considerable number of food insecure households. Food insecure households will generally be identifiable in regional or socio-economic terms.
4.2. It is important as a first step in developing an appropriate strategy for enhancing food security to identify the nature and level of food insecurity problems. Although some household problems can be tackled at the national level, and some national level problems will respond to an increase in household entitlements, the interaction between the different levels of food are critical in devising an effective response. To visualize the role of the government in clear terms it is necessary to develop mechanisms to take background research and analytical exercises and disseminate results.
4.3. We have argued that food security at national level, i.e., self-reliance in food at the national level does not necessarily mean food security at the household or individual level. Thus overall production or availability of foodgrain may be a bad indicator of what the vulnerable groups in the population can actually acquire. Food may rank highest among basic human needs, but it will not be reflected in the market as long as it is not adequately backed up by purchasing power (effective demand).
4.5. Even when aggregate food supplies are adequate, a number of factors may prevent poor households or individuals from acquiring enough food. Income levels of the poor may be insufficient to enable them to purchase the necessary foods at the prices prevailing in the market.
These households may also lack the necessary assets or access to credit to help them get through difficult times. Moreover, they may find themselves outside any public assistance or other program that would provide them with transfers in-kind or as cash to supplement their food acquisition capacity.
4.6. Poverty and hunger, as we know, are not simply economic problems in the narrow sense, but more importantly it has social and political dimensions as well. Since the market does not care about the food security needs of the food deprived population, the government will have to play the caring role if the objective of ensuring food security of the citizens is to be achieved in
Bangladesh because of so high incidence of absolute poverty and un(under)employment.
4.7. Moreover, adequate food availability at the household level does not necessarily mean that all members of the household enjoy access to enough food. In particular, women and children

often suffer from inequalities in intra-household food distribution. Protein-Energy-Malnutrition
(PEM) describes a spectrum of clinical disorders and is the most important public health problem.
However, investigations further suggest that when commonly consumed cereal diets meet energy needs, they meet protein requirements as well. Balanced diet is a food security related problem, which is not directly related with poverty in Bangladesh.

5. Overview on Poverty and Access to Food Situation
5.1. According to latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2000) of
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) the malnutrition problem is desperately serious for the poorest 14% of the rural population consuming fewer than 1600 calories per capita per day, levels barely adequate for survival. Another 10% consume between 1600 and 1800 calories per day, while roughly 23% consume more than 1800 calories but less than the minimum caloric requirement set in Bangladesh at 2122 per day. (For purposes of discussion, these groupings are described respectively as “ultra food deficit,” “hard-core food deficit,” and “moderately food deficit,” using locally familiar nomenclature).
5.2. In all, roughly half of the country’s rural households would be considered food insecure and also fall below established poverty lines. Although these percentages are considerably less severe than those which existed two decades ago -the percentage of the rural population consuming less than required calories in 1981 was 73% - improvements have not continued during the 1990s during which average caloric intake has actually fallen.
5.3. It has been evident that increased domestic production, supplemented by imports and overall public food management contributed to relatively adequate availability of food at national level over the recent past years. However, as has been mentioned, the fundamental spirit of food security is to ensure availability and consumption of food at individual level. Even when aggregate food supplies are adequate, a number of factors may prevent households or individuals from acquiring enough food. The overall productivity of the poor producers may be low or their income levels may be insufficient to enable them to purchase the necessary foods from the market at the ruling prices. Households may also lack the necessary asset or access to credit to overcome the period of hardship. They may also remain outside the food assistance programmes that would provide them with cash or kind income to supplement their food acquisition capacity.
5.4. Food security at household level is closely linked with poverty. These poverty and food security problems are massive, with approximately half of the population lacking the resources to acquire enough food and consequently remaining below the poverty line. Two approaches are generally used for measuring the incidence of poverty: direct calorie intake (DCI) method and cost of basic need (CBN) method. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has estimated the extent of poverty using the DCI method through its successive Household Expenditure Surveys
(HES). In addition, the CBN method of estimation has also been introduced in the household expenditure surveys.

6. Long Term Outlook of Food Supply and Demand
6.1. Although Bangladesh has achieved considerable success in augmenting domestic production and thereby ensuring stable supply of food over the past years, sustainability of production and hence availability of food is a big issue which is being raised very strongly. The overall production, availability, requirement and food security situation can be analyzed by taking into account population growth, income growth and the consequent food demand patterns.
Bangladesh has achieved moderate success in checking population growth. The annual growth of population declined from around 3% in the 1960s to 1.5% in the year 2001 (BBS 2001). An important aspect of population growth which will have important implications for the pattern of food demand is the rate of growth of urban population.
6.2. According to World Bank projection, urban population will increase to about 46.4 million by 2005 to constitute about 30 percent of the total populations. With national income growing at a rate of 4 percent per annum, per capita income is expected to grow at about 1.9 percent per annum under the medium population growth scenario. Under the optimistic population growth scenario, however, per capita income will grow by 2.4 percent per annum. If national income grows at a rate of 5 percent per annum, per capita income would increase at a rate of 2.9 percent per annum under the medium population growth scenario and 3.4 percent per annum under the low population growth scenario (Hossain 1989).
6.3. A drastic change in the pattern of food demand would occur if per capita income growth could be accelerated to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent per annum. The demand for cereals, vegetables would increase at a much slower rate, while the demand for livestock products would increase at a higher rate than the growth of national income. With higher increase in urban population, the demand for cereals will proportionately decline while the demand for fishery and livestock products will continue to rise.
6.4. The projection of annual increase in the demand for various types of food under alternative growth scenarios is presented in Table 3. Demand would grow at an annual rate of less than 3% for foodgrains; 3-4% for vegetables, pulses and edible oils; 4-5% for fish, milk and sugar; and at more than 5% for meat. With population growing at 1.5% per annum, demand for grains would grow only at 2.3% even if the GNP growth accelerates to 5% per annum. Under this scenario, demand for livestock products would grow at nearly 5.6% and the demand fro fish at 4.2% (Hossain 1989).

7. Access to Food: Intervention for Enhancing Current Status
7.1. Effective implementation of the targeted food safety net programmes
7.2. Intervention for Improving Food Market Efficiency

8. Improving Food Security: Policies and Actions
8.1. Improving Availability of Food
8.1.1. The four components of food availability are domestic production, commercial import, food aid and stock adjustment. The Ministry of Agriculture and other related bodies focus on production policies that influence medium and long term availability. The Ministry of Food aims to ensure mainly the short run availability through various market interventions.
8.1.2. The policies pursued by the government to increase domestic production include provision of incentive price to the growers, implicit and explicit subsidy on major agricultural inputs including credit and investment in agricultural research for generation of new technologies.
8.2. Improving Access to Food
8.2.1. The government of Bangladesh uses two broad approaches to increase access to food, particularly for the poor:
a. The short-run approach in which direct transfer of food or cash is provided through a number of programmes; and Food Security and Access to Food: Present Status and Future Perspective
b. The long-run approach, through which the government designs policies, implements programmes, and invests in development projects with a view of raising incomes of the poor and their capacity to acquire food through employment generating activities.
Although relief distribution remains an important objective, most targeted food programmes have gradually shifted in emphasis from relief to development.
8.3. Measuring Effectiveness of Food Programmes

9. Incorporation of both Supply and Demand-based approaches to analyze food security
9.1. Policies to improve food security need both supply and demand-based approaches. Food supply determines availability and food demand is an expression of the ability to gain access to food. Both access and availability along with proper utilisation of acquired food - have to be ensured at the same time to achieve food security. This applies to individuals within households as well as household and national levels.
9.2. Major factors determining food availability are:
- the volume and stability of food production (subsistence and market oriented production);
- available food stock (farm-level, trade level, and government sock)
- food import and export (commercial, food-aid import and export of raw or processed food) 10. Pathway of interaction Poverty, Growth and Food Security in Bangladesh
10.1 Conceptual Framework of Food Security in Bangladesh Context
10.2. Efficiency of Food Production and Marketing Systems
10.3. Stabilization of Food Markets and Public Food Distribution System (PFDS)
10.4. Promoting Income Growth for the Rural Poor
10.5. Enhancing Nutrition for Vulnerable Groups through Targeted Intervention

11. Key to Long-term Food Security: Access to Sufficient Income and Resources
11.1. The households can make use of the resources available to them as well as the level of those resources depends to some extent on the nature of the environment within which they operate, and the specific forms of the institutions which regulate the relations between the various economic agents.
11.2. Entitlement Factors influencing Access to Food and Poverty: An approach to take account of the following entitlement factors may be useful.
Trade-based entitlement - which describes what an individual can buy with the commodities and cash they own.
Production-based entitlement - which describes the right to own what one produces with one’s own resources. Own-labour entitlement - which describes the sale of one’s own labour power, and the resulting trade-based entitlements.
Inheritance and transfer entitlement - which refers to the right to own and what is willingly given by others as remittances, gifts or bequests, as well as transfers from the state such as social security, pensions, food distribution.
11.3. All these entitlements give an individual control over resources which they can use, within the rules and regulations laid down by society, to satisfy their needs, including the very basic need of food. This goes rather further than a purely economic analysis of prices and income, insofar as it allows for consideration of both traditional community and state institutions when analyzing how people meet their food requirements.
11.4. Risk and Vulnerability Issues: The risk factors which create food insecurity must come into consideration. There are two approaches which can be taken to this. The first is to look at the characteristics of the vulnerable groups in a society. The second is to examine the sources of risk to their entitlements. Both approaches give useful insights: the first helps identify vulnerability and the second illustrates how that vulnerability may change over time.
11.5. The food insecurity is not only confined to those who have food deficient diets at a given point in time. They include those whose access to food is insecure or vulnerable, those who are in danger of inadequate diets.

12. Enhancement of Access to Food through Public Food Distribution System (PFDS)

13. Access to Food Strategy and the Public Food Distribution System

FOOD SECURITY IN BANGLADESH: UTILIZATION,
NUTRITION AND FOOD SAFETY

To most people food security means a stock of cereals that can be used to meet an unforeseen food crisis. Food certainly is not cereal alone, neither its security is just a sufficient amount of cereal stock. Food means balanced diet and its security refers to availability of such diet at a reasonable price. The Plan of Action of the World Food Summit, 1996 defines “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. The term has gone beyond food supplies to include access, sufficiency, vulnerability and sustainability (Maxwell, 1996). Thus comprehensive food security is defined as availability, access, and utilization by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Domestic production, external trade and efficiency of distribution through markets and other channels determine availability of food. Household’s income and govt. transfers, assistance from relatives and friends, remittance from abroad and assistance from NGOs determine access to food. Where as utilization of food is determined by individual food preferences, health, and environmental factors affecting absorption of food. Ensuring food security for all is one the major challenges that Bangladesh faces today. Despite significant achievement in foodgrain production and food availability, food security at national, household and individual levels remains a matter of major concern for the Government mainly due to natural calamities. Since independence, Bangladesh has made substantial progress in increasing domestic production of foodgrains. The food production of the country both rice and wheat, was 10.46 million metric tons in the year 1971-72. Bangladesh attained self-sufficiency in food production in 1999-2000 with a gross production of rice and wheat of 24.9 million metric tons which marginally met the country’s requirement of 21.4 millions metric tons for the population of 129 million, taking 453.6 gm per capita per day requirement. The gross production was 26.8 & 25.9, 26.7 and 27.5 million metric tons in 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively.
Net availability of meat, fish, milk & milk products, egg and pulses were 624000, 1584000,
1656000, 3470000 and 615000 metric tons and 673000, 1726000, 1751000, 4177000 and 587000 metric tons in 1996-97 and 1999-00 respectively.

2.0 Food consumption
Average per capita daily intake of major food items (in group) in the country was 886.2 grams in
1991-92, which increased to 913.8 grams in 1995-1996 but it reduced to 893.1 grams in 2000. In rural area average food intake was 878.1 grams in 1991-92, 910.5 gram in 1995-96 and 898.7 grams in 2000. In urban area food intake reduced over the years. It was 938.40 grams in 1991-92, 930.80 grams in 1995-1996 and 870.7 grams in 2000.
Food Security in Bangladesh: Utilization, Nutrition and Food Safety
In 1985-86 average calorie intake was 2191 K.cal in 1988-89, it increased to 2215 K.cal in 1991-
92, it further increased to 2266 K.cal but in 1995-96 it dropped to 2244 K.cal and again dropped to 2240 K.cal in 2000.
In the rural areas, it was 2203 K.cal in 1985-86, increased to 2217 K.cal in 1988-89, further increased to 2267 K.cal in 1991-92, slightly reduced to 2251 K.cal in 1995-96, but increased to
2263 K.cal in 2000. But in urban area, the intake of calorie shows ups and downs over the periods.
It was 2107 K.cal in 1985-86, increased to 2183 K.cal in 1988-89, further increased to 2258 K.cal in 1991-92, but sharply reduced to 2209 in 1995-96 and further reduced to 2150 in 2000. The calorie intake may be compared with the WHO bare minimum requirement of 2122 k.calories and the FAO minimum for a normal working person of 2310 k.calories.
Apart from being calorie deficient, the Bangladeshi diet is very unbalanced. About 75% of energy comes from cereals when according to FAO the proportion ideally should be around 55%.
Protein intake during 1985-86 to the year 2000 moves within the range 62.50 grams to 64.96 grams with a high intake of 64.96 grams in 1995-96 to a low 62.50 grams in 2000.
The intake over the years ranges between 61.88 grams to 64.45 grams with a low intake of 61.88 grams in 2000 and a high intake of 64.45 grams in 1995-96 in the rural area, but in the urban area, the intake ranges between 64.96 grams to 68.27 grams with a low intake of 64.96 grams in 2000 and a high 68.27 grams in 1988-89.
Intake of edible oil has been increased from 10.1 gm in 1991-92 to 12.82 gm in the year 2000.But it was 9.8 gm in 1995-96.

3.0 Nutrition Situation
Malnutrition is one of the major public health problems in the country. 30% children born each year weigh below 2.5 kg. Child Nutrition Survey, 2000 revealed that among the preschool age children only 11.5 % of are nutritionally normal where 2.4% children are severely malnourished,
34.7% are moderately malnourished and 50.7% are mildly malnourished. The survey also revealed that the national prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight in preschool age children are 11.7%, 48.8% and 51.1% respectively. These figures were significantly higher in
Child Nutrition Survey 1995-96 i.e. wasting, stunting and underweight were 16.6%, 51.4% and
57.4% respectively. In CNS, 2000, it was to be found that 12% of the boys and 11.4% of the girls were wasted, Prevalence of underweight was 51.4% in boys and 50.9% in girls. Rural children are significantly more malnourished than that of the urban children. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey,2004 shows that 43% of children under 5 are considered to be stunted and the prevalence of stunting increases with age from 10% of children under 6 months to 51% of children age 48-59 months. Rural children are more like to be stunted than urban children.Furthermore,13% children are wasted and 48% children are underweight. Study revealed that in 1996-97 54% mothers were suffering from chronic energy deficiency, which decreased to 38% in 2003 and 37.9% in 2004.Survey revealed that only 60% pregnant ,65% lactating and 67% non lactating non pregnant women are non anaemic.
It is reported that the prevalence of night blindness among children of 12-59 months of has been reduced from 3.5 % in 1982-83 to 0.62 % in 1997-98, 0.21% in 2001 and 013% in 2004, which is below the WHO cut-off level. The Iodine Deficiency Disorders Survey, 1993 revealed that the prevalence of goiter was 44.7%, 50.7% and 45.6% in the hilly, flood prone and plain land respectively and about 69% people of this country were biochemically iodine deficient. But IDD survey 1999 revealed that the prevalence of goiter came down and the figures are 19.8%, 13.7% and 20.4% in the hilly, flood prone and plain land respectively and the biochemically iodine deficient population was 43%.
4.0 Food Safety: Dimensions and Status
Bangladesh since independence has made significant achievements in improving the health of the people, and services to its ever-growing population. Inspite of these achievements, malnutrition is still an important public health problem in the country. Though malnutrition can not be fully eliminated, however, by increasing safe and quality food supply the complex problem of malnutrition could be reduced to some extent. But food safety issues receive less attention and, not infrequently, it has been mostly overlooked except some recent development in the country.
The International Conference on Nutrition, 1992, in its Plan of Action mentioned that, achieving food security has three dimensions. First and important one is to ensure a safe and nutritionally adequate food supply both at the national and household level. The Plan of Action of the World
Food Summit, 1996 also echoes with this aspect. So, it is well documented that food safety has been a clear and important dimension of food security and without ensuring food safety and quality the objective of the food security is not achievable.
Food Safety is defined as the all conditions and measures that are necessary during the production, processing storage, distribution, and preparation of food to ensure that it is safe, sound, wholesome, and fit for human consumption” (WHO,1984). Food may be contaminated with microorganisms, chemical substances or physical substances, which may cause acute to chronic illness, from diarrhoea to cancers, as well as it may cause poor physical and mental growth of children.
Food-borne illnesses may have serious social and economic consequences, including losses in productivity, income and income-generating capacity. People who consume unsafe food and/or suffer from food-borne diseases are less productive. This means lower incomes, less access to safe food and increased food insecurity. The application of good agricultural and hygienic practices (GMP and GHP) in food production, processing and distribution improves food safety and at the same time reduces food losses, thereby increasing food availability and food security at the national and international level. Countries that are able to ensure safe food can take advantage not only in reducing the incidence of food-borne diseases also promote international trade opportunities in food and agricultural products and promote tourism and thereby increase income levels and household food security.
Food safety and quality situation in Bangladesh is a much-discussed issue now a days, which has also been depicted both in printed and electronic media. It is aggravated in recent days more in the capital and other metropolitan cities. Findings of a study conducted in 2003 in Dhaka city by the Institute of Public Health (IPH), Dhaka with support from the World Health Organization
(WHO), revealed that out of its 400 sweetmeat, 250 Biscuit, 50 Bread and 200 Ice cream samples, 96.8% of sweetmeats, 24% Biscuits, 54% Breads, 59% Ice Creams are adulterated. In another study conducted by the Institute of Public Health (IPH) in 1994 supported by WHO, it was found that out of 52 street vended food samples, all were contaminated with different types of disease producing microorganisms. Over the last decade, it was found that some 50% of the food samples tested in IPH laboratory were adulterated. Another report shows that some 71% food samples of the Dhaka City are adulterated. The Sanitary Inspectors collect the samples from the Upazilas (sub-districts) and Municipalities of the country and sent to IPH. Though the samples were not seemingly representative, the adulteration statistics stated above put immediate as well as effective intervention from the stakeholders.
Evaluation of Universal Salt Iodization in Bangladesh, 1999 shows that 45% salt samples out of
2043 samples collected from 2064 house-holds (1560 from rural, 324 from urban non slum and
180 from urban slum) contained less than 15 ppm iodine, which is below the standard limit or requirement which almost similar with the study conducted in 1996. BSTI report shows that about 90% of iodized salt samples collected in March, 2005 were found to be below standard. A recent preliminary report from IPH shows that some 50% iodized salt did contain iodine at the required level. A number of survey reports of Consumers Association of Bangladesh also reveal that a good number of different food items available in the market are not upto the standard and that some do not have BSTI approval.
The Govt. of Bangladesh is well committed to ensure safe and quality food to its people. In
Bangladesh, the food safety and quality control framework consists of Laws, Regulations &
Standards; Administration & Inspection and Laboratory analytical services. Considering the alarming Food safety and quality situation, the Govt. has enacted the Bangladesh Pure Food
(Amendment) Act, 2005. The Govt. through MOFDM has just completed a programme of
“Strengthening National Food Safety and Quality System” under FAO TA. The Govt. is also strengthening the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institution (BSTI)-an Institute, which is responsible for the standardization, testing, metrology, quality control, grading and marking of goods. The BSTI Ordinance, 1985 has been amended as The Bangladesh Standards and Testing
Institution (Amendment) Act, 2003. Currently, BSTI is developing a ‘Policy on Labeling’. BSTI is the Codex Focal Point for Bangladesh. The Government has also enacted “The Iodine
Deficiency Disorders Prevention Act, 1989 for universal salt iodization & banned non-iodized salt from market, aimed at virtual elimination of IDD from the country. Other Acts like the
Radiation Protection Act, 1987, the Essential Commodity Act, 1990, Fish and Fish product
(Inspection and Quality Control) Rules, 1997 etc. There are also a number of policies National
Agricultural Policy, 1999, Integrated Pest Management Policy, 2002 etc are linked with the country’s food safety and quality control initiatives. The present anti-adulteration drive is highly appreciated by all corners of the society.
Under the Bangladesh Pure Food Rules, 1967, there are only 107 different generic, mandatory food standards and there are 50 mandatory generic food standards under BSTI Ordinance. In addition, there are some 250 optional standards for different foodstuff. BSTI is also adopting
Codex standards.
On the issue of administration, inspection & testing system of food safety and quality, a number ministries viz. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW, Ministry of Local Government,
Rural Development and Co-operatives (MOLGRD) Ministry of Food and Disaster Management:
Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Agriculture are directly or indirectly responsible for enforcement of food laws, rules and regulations.
Under the Bangladesh Pure Food (Amendment) Act, 2005, the Government has provisioned a
Food Safety Advisory Council which will advise the Government on food safety and quality issues. Laboratory Accreditation Act is also under active consideration of the government. It is to mention that a good number of laboratories under different Ministries are involved in quality control of food. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is implementing Food safety programme in the country in collaboration with the WHO aimed to human resource development, strengthening public health laboratory of IPH, development of mass awareness involving different professionalgroups and community leaders as well as conduction of some research works on food safety and quality. A follow-up Technical Assistance project is expected to be under formulated by MOFDM.

5.0 Food and Nutrition Policies, Plan, Strategies and Programmes of Bangladesh
Policies and Strategies
Bangladesh is one of the signatories of unanimously adopted “World Declaration and Plan of
Action for Nutrition” in International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), 1992 - jointly organized by
FAO and WHO and Declaration and Plan of Action of the “World Food Summit, 1996” organized by FAO.
Article 15 (a) of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh declares the fundamental responsibility of the state is to secure its citizen to the provision of the basic necessities of life including food. On the other hand Article 18(a) of the Constitution outlines “the state shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and improvement of public heath as among its primary duties”.
As follow-up of activities of ICN the documents prepared in Bangladesh are: (a) Bangladesh
Country Paper (BCP) on Nutrition: Updated, 1995; (b) State of Nutrition in Bangladesh, 1995; (c) National Plan of Action for Nutrition: Some Projects from Selected Themes, 1996; (d) National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN) 1997 following the adoption of Food and Nutrition Policy in 1997 e) National Health Policy, 2000. The World Food Summit Plan of Action guided the country in preparing “Report on Comprehensive Food security Policy for Bangladesh, 2000” and “Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS), 2004”. The NPAN has not been revised since its first formulation in 1997 (which is now under process of evaluation and review by NNC and MOHFW). The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (i-PRSP) and draft PRSP (December 2004) have also duly emphasized the nutrition issue as part of development. Moreover, very recently ECNEC approved PRSP in October 2005 after a rigorous consultation process. A “Draft National Food Policy” is under consultation stage, which will definitely incorporate MDG and PRSP goals (related to utilization and nutrition), targets and policy agenda.

Programmes:
National Nutrition Project (NNP)
Regarding the nutrition related programmes of the Government, one of the remarkable and significant endeavour was: Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Programme (BINP, 1995-2002).
BINP was introduced in 59 Upazillas in four phases. National Nutrition Project (NNP, 2000-2004) was designed in the light of BINP experience. Following revisit in design, NNP was introduced in a new manner in January 2003 and fielded in Nov-Dec. 2003 and presently being operated in 105 upazillas. From July 2004, NNP has been continued as part of Nutrition Sub-sector under Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Programme (HNPSP) in a programme approach. NNP renders services for nutrition both in national and community level services. Community Nutrition activities are organized around Community–donated Community Nutrition Centres (CNCs), established for a population of 1000 to 1500 and run by part-time female contract workers, called Community Nutrition Promoters (CNPs). CNPs are supervised by Community Nutrition Organizers (CNOs). In addition, Village, Union, Upazila and District Nutrition Management Committees are established for community mobilization and inter-sectoral cooperation.
Area Based Community Nutrition Core Services are (a) Children’s Services, (b)
Maternal (Pregnant and Post-partum) Nutrition Services, (c) Newly Married Couples Nutrition
Services and (d) Adolescent Girl’s Nutrition Services for Girls Aged 13 to 19 Years.
Govt. has other programmes like Vitamin-A supplementation, Salt Iodization programme etc. to improve the nutritional status of the people.

Food Assisted Programs
Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) and Integrated Food Security (IFS) Programme are nation wide programmes being implemented in rural upazillas covering 7,50,000 ultra poor women of the country. Capacity building through provision of a “development package” consisting of group formation, awareness raising on legal, social, health and nutrition issues, functional education, training on marketable income generation skills, savings and provision of credit. Together with the above interventions, the VGD also has some nutrition oriented complementary interventions called:
i. Atta Fortification in Milling and Fortification Units (MFUs) and ii. VGD-National Nutrition Project NNP) Collaboration
Other programmes are-School Feeding Programme (SFP); Women Training Centre Programme
(WTC); Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF); Food for Work (FFW); Test relief and Gratuitous relief etc. having important implications on nutritional status of the population.

5.0 Issues and Challenges:
Now the issues regarding food utilization & nutrition are that policies/plans are not updated, there are seasonality in consumption pattern due to seasonality in prices specially in the poor people; unconvincing socio-economic status of the household; weak monitoring and evaluation system; coverage of sanitation are not yet full; though IMR, MMR etc. have improved over the years, improvement in other indicators are rather slow and not speedy enough to achieve the goals/targets; programmes in place are seemingly inadequate reflecting the scarcity of resources; food based programmes for specific groups (e.g preschoolers) are virtually negligible as compared to the need; economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the programmes are questionable etc. Issues for food safety are: poor institutional mechanism of co-ordination; non-existence of unified food safety administration; capacity to enforce laws and regulations; number of food under mandatory standards; slow pace of harmonization; weak analytical capabilities in judging the implications of stringent standards on the poor; inadequate and un-coordinated lab facilities; overlapping of responsibilities; resources (specialized manpower, testing equipment, and of course money) constraints; farm to fork approach not yet established; lack of food safety database and weak research in food safety etc.

Total Dietary Energy Requirement:
The energy requirement of an individual is that level of energy intake from food that will balance energy expenditure when the individual has a body size and composition and a level of physical activity, consistent with long term good health, and that will allow for the maintenance of economically necessary and socially desirable physical activity (FAO/WHO/UNU, 1985; IDEG,
1996). In children and pregnant or lactating women, the energy requirement includes the energy needs associated with deposition of tissues or secretion of milk at rates consistent with good health. Energy requirement is principally determined by energy expenditure, which has two major components: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and Physical Activity Level (PAL). BMR is multiplied by the PAL factor to get the total energy expenditure (factorial method). Special allowance is then made for pregnant and lactating mothers.
Unfortunately, no national average value of energy requirement has yet been set up on consensus for Bangladeshi population. Various figures ranging from 2150 to 2400 kcal/person/day are available from various sources (individuals or organizations). The main problem in determining this value is the determination of correct BMR and the correct PAL.
BMR is calculated from the body weight (in kg) using different formula for different age and sex groups (Department of Health, USA, 1991). A general tendency in calculating BMR in
Bangladesh has been to use existing height and the expected weight for that height. Calculated on the basis of the expected weight of 61.7 kg for existing height of 162 cm for men and the expected weight of 49.2 kg for existing height of 148 cm for women, and also the existing body weight of children under 10 years, which is nearly 20% less than the desired weight, the BMR of an average Bangladeshi stands at 1274 kcal/day. When this value is multiplied by an average PAL value of 1.6 (weighted) (children 1.2 and adults 1.8), then the average energy requirement stands at 2038 kcal/person/day (Jahan and Hossain, 1998). But, when BMR is calculated on the expected weight of 68 kg for desirable height of 175 cm for men and the expected weight of 55 kg for desirable height of 160 cm for women and taking the desirable weight of the children for their age (up to 10 years), the average BMR rises to 1465 kcal/day. When multiplied by the PAL factor of 1.6, the average national energy requirement takes the value of 2344 kcal/person/day, which is midway between the values suggested by WHO (2310 kcal) and FAO (2400 kcal). In the present paper, the composition of a balanced diet with a right amount of cereals in the diet has been formulated based on this proposed dietary energy requirement (2344 kcal/person/day).

Standard Requirement of Cereals and the Balanced Diet
In developing countries, people derive most of their nutrients from plant sources. Cereals, being the staple food, are the highest providers, particularly energy. However, energy is also obtained from other non-cereal carbohydrate rich food (roots and tubers, plantains), oils (vegetable oils) and proteins (mainly plant sources). For efficient utilization of energy, the internationally recognized norm is that no more than 60-65% of energy should come from carbohydrates
55% from cereals), 10-15% from proteins and 25-30% from fat. Otherwise, imbalances can
Bangladesh has also problems in having data on food intake. The two major sources of dietary consumption data, namely the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the Institute of
Nutrition and Food Science (INFS) of Dhaka University (DU) provide data which are highly conflicting. Thus, while the nutrition surveys conducted by Biochemistry Department and INFS of Dhaka University in 1962-64 (USDHEW, 1966), 1975-76 (INFS, 1977), 1981-82 (INFS, 1983) and 1995-96 (Jahan and Hossain, 1998) show a persistent decrease in total energy intake (from 2118 kcal/person/day in 1962-64 to 1868 kcal/person/day in 1995-96) (Figure 1), mainly due to decrease in total food intake (Figure 2), BBS data show a much higher level of energy intake and little change in the intake over the period between 1991-92 (2266 kcal/person/ day) and 2000 (2240 kcal/person/day) (Figures 3 and 4) (BBS, 1993, 1997, 2003). However, one thing is common in the two sources and that is that carbohydrates contribute nearly 80% of total dietary energy, which makes the diet unacceptably imbalanced. For people in the bottom 20% expenditure quintile, this is 90% or more.
According to BBS, the total food intake in Bangladesh in 2000 was 893 g/person/day, of which cereal intake was 476 g. By energy, cereals contributed 74.4% of total dietary energy of 2240 kcal. Obviously, the intake of cereals was as always too high, and the diet, with lower quantities of non-cereal items, was not only deficient in energy (by about 5% taking 2344 kcal as the requirement) but also highly imbalanced and deficient in vitamins and minerals. Consumption of such a diet would produce physiological deficiencies of both energy and protein, leading to protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) as well as micronutrient malnutrition.
To overcome these deficiencies, a balanced diet is suggested with 372 g cereals (312 g rice and
60 g wheat) and 581 g non-cereals, the total being 953g, only 60g more than consumed currently
(Table 1). The total energy content of the diet is 2345 kcal, contribution of cereals to which is
55%. The carbohydrates of food items like roots and tubers, pulses and some fruits and vegetables would contribute another 10%, so that total carbohydrate contribution to total diet energy would be 65%, the maximum recommended contribution to be made by carbohydrates.

Conclusions: The national dietary energy requirement is proposed to be 2344 kcal/ person/day. A standard cereal intake of 372 g/person/day (312 g rice, 60 g wheat) is proposed for balanced nutrition. A balanced diet is proposed which is expected to result in increase in height and weight of Bangladeshi population to desirable levels and reduce malnutrition to such levels below public health magnitude, in a time span of 15-20 years. To achieve the proposed balanced diet, both income and other socio-economic variables shall have to be improved.

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