Food systems at a crossroads in South Asia

According to Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the food systems in South Asia are at a crossroads. And climate change is the most pressing issue the region is facing with implications for food security of already vulnerable populations. Factors like increasing climatic variability, extreme weather events, and rising temperatures pose new challenges for ensuring food and nutrition security in the region. The South Asian region is one of the least integrated regions and IFPRI in its annual flagship publication, titled 'Global Food Policy Report 2018', suggested better intraregional linkages and increased intraregional trade to help the region grow.

As it is, the South Asian region is one of the least internally integrated and intraregional trade accounts for only 5.0 per cent of the region's total trade whereas it accounts for 25 per cent in Southeast Asia. Similarly, of the overall investment, the intraregional investment makes up less than 1.0 per cent in the region. This year's report states that increased intraregional trade and better intraregional linkages will help the region grow faster. South Asian countries in 2018 are expected to reform their agriculture sectors, increase openness to trade, strengthen linkages with global food value chains, and take steps to adapt to climate change and weather uncertainties.

The region is highly vulnerable to the climate change impacts. Agricultural activities in South Asia are increasingly affected by climate variables such as temperature, rainfall, flooding, and drought. In 2017, most of the South Asian countries weathered some form of natural calamity. To cite a few examples, we can say that heavy floods in Bangladesh damaged crops and properties, including the country's main staple food rice; while flood in Nepal affected about 1.7 million people and damaged more than 34,000 homes. Flooding and drought in turn plagued Sri Lanka as well as some 18 states in India, which saw a sizable drop in rainy-season food grain production as a result while the below-average rainfall sharply reduced 2016 cereal production in Pakistan.

Global economic prospects and food value chains offer untapped potential for prosperity in the South Asian region. The efforts to increase efficiencies, reduce post-harvest losses, and develop the agro-processing sector are equally important for the region's growth. With economic growth projected to reach 7.1 per cent in 2018, increasing exports, low oil prices, higher infrastructure spending, and supportive macroeconomic policies helped make South Asia the world's fastest growing region again in 2017. However, growth across the region was not uniform as it ranged from 0.6 per cent in Nepal to a new high of 7.1 per cent both in Bangladesh and India.

Growth in agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, for example, in South Asia also varied from country to country, growing by 6.0 per cent in Afghanistan and shrinking by more than 4.0 per cent in Sri Lanka. Also, Agricultural GDP growth slowed in Bangladesh in 2016, but rose significantly in Bhutan and India. Bangladesh has achieved one of the fastest and most prolonged reductions in child stunting in the world. Social protection programmes, as of 2016, covered 28 per cent of households and accounted for around 12 per cent of public spending which is 2.2 per cent of the GDP. Bangladesh, with its National Social Security Strategy, is widening the scope for social protection to include employment policies and social insurance. Furthermore, the country aims to identify actions and investments in agriculture that will help improve nutrition and empower women through the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) research project.

Bangladesh, as the new Report says, is revamping its Public Food Distribution System (PFDS), instituting a nationwide electronic system for monitoring public food grain stocks, and implementing the World Bank-financed Modern Food Storage Facilities Project. The country is constructing eight modern steel grain-storage silos for rice and wheat and 500,000 silos for households in the disaster-prone areas. By promoting the use of agricultural technology through policy reforms, regulations, and incentives, Bangladesh is working to increase production of diverse, nutritive, and high-value crops. Moreover, Bangladesh's efforts to liberalise input markets resulted in a greater supply of improved seeds and fertilisers as well as a burgeoning number of food markets and marketplaces where rural women can sell their farm products.

Sarwar Md. Saifullah Khaled is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.

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