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Food Systems for Healthier Diets in Bangladesh

Alan de Brauw,
Senior Research Fellow
Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), based in Washington, DC, USA.

Jillian Waid
Researcher
National Information Platform for Nutrition, Bangladesh, and a Senior Scientist with the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, based in Potsdam, Germany.

Craig A. Meisner
Senior Technical Advisor
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Fahmida Akter
Senior Research Fellow
James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Bushra Ferdous Khan
Lecturer
North South University, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Lalita Bhattacharjee
Senior Nutritionist
FAO, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Md Nazmul Alam
Program Manager
CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health at IFPRI, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Sabiha Sultana
Technical Specialist-Monitoring, Learning and Research
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), based in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Md Nazim Uddin
Senior Scientific Officer
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, based in Gazipur, Bangladesh.

Foyzul Bari Himel
Freelance development practitioner
Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Kendra Byrd
Nutrition Scientist
WorldFish, based in Penang, Malaysia.

M Latiful Bari
Associate Professor
University of Dhaka, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Shamia Chowdhury
Nutrition Scientist
WorldFish, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Shakuntala Thilsted
Research Program Manager
Value Chains and Nutrition at WorldFish, based in Penang, Malaysia

Rudaba Khondker
Country Director
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Bangladesh, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The national food system of Bangladesh has made substantial progress since experiencing famine in 1974, soon after independence. After the famine, the government placed a strong emphasis on policies required to attain grain self-sufficiency; since attaining self-sufficiency, the production system, policies related to it, and resulting diets have begun to diversify. Nonetheless, undernutrition remains a problem, and fruit and vegetable consumption is inadequate for most people relative to international recommendations. Moreover, as the food system has begun to transition towards a modern one, challenges related to food safety and perceived food adulteration have begun to rise. Further, increased processed food intakes are potentially associated with existing rising overweight and obesity status. Both government interventions and innovations are needed to help shift the national food system to improve nutrient-dense food availability, particularly among the poor, and to limit the increase in processed food consumption.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Food systems, Diets, Food environment

Location: Over all Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Food Safety and Security

Commodity: Nutrition

Objectives:

To help guide future food systems research in Bangladesh

Methodology:

A healthy diet is a foundation for human health and well-being. A diet deficient in macro and micronutrients impedes physical and cognitive development, contributes to ill health, and, thereby, reduces economic productivity. Optimal health relies on an adequate intake of key macro and micronutrients and phytochemicals. Healthy diets provide food that is safe and sufficient in terms of quantity and quality, providing individuals with essential nutrients in appropriate amounts. Adequate health also requires diets that provide adequate amounts of nutrients to support human health. A lack of comprehensive dietary information is common in many low- and middle-income countries, including Bangladesh. However, several in-depth dietary assessments have shown low intakes of several micronutrients among women and children. Despite deficiencies in dietary diversity and micronutrient intakes, diets in Bangladesh have slowly been improving. Due to the gap in comprehensive data over time, dietary quality in Bangladesh must be measured using simple indicators and non-optimal datasets. The section also suggests the following research questions: 1. How rapidly will dietary diversity continue to increase on its own? Will it begin to change among the relatively poor? 2. What strategies can be tested to make nutrient-dense foods more affordable for the poor? 3. What factors led to changes in energy intakes and the composition of energy intakes between 2010 and 2016? 4. As purchasing power increases and demand shifts away from starches, what replaces them more rapidly—nutrient-dense foods or more processed foods? Is this pattern heterogenous by income level or location (rural/urban)? 5. What food combinations should be promoted for better nutrient bioavailability? Basic economic consumer theory suggests that prices, income, and factors related to preferences drive people to select specific foods they eat. However, the concept of preferences deserves more careful thought; Rani (2014) identifies cultural, social, personal and psychological factors as the four major influences on consumer buying behavior, adding that these factors can cause consumers to develop product and brand preferences. Food availability includes physical, economic and social access to foods (FAO, 1996), and the physical accessibility of food depends on distance, time, space and place, daily mobility, and modes of transport at the individual level (Turner et al., 2017). To be available for consumption, food must travel through a supply system. Here, we consider four connected components of the food supply system: 1) the agricultural production sub-system; 2) the storage, transport, and trade subsystem; 3) the food transformation subsystem, and 4) the food retail and provisioning subsystem. Food supply in Bangladesh is strongly influenced by previous policy decisions. Bangladesh was one of the poorest countries in the world at independence (1971), and three years later, in 1974, it experienced a severe famine. Now that Bangladesh grows more rice than consumers demand, rice prices, and therefore profitability, are declining. As a result, land previously used for rice is being converted to higher-value crop or aquaculture investments. Due to the grain production surplus, high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables, aquaculture, fodder, and livestock allow for either diet diversification and/or higher incomes potentially allowing the purchase of more nutritious foods, which either must be produced in Bangladesh or 23 imported. Cattle production has been increasing rapidly in Bangladesh over the past decade (DLS, 2019). A recent growth catalyst was a recent ban of Indian cattle from entering Bangladesh by the Indian Prime Minister, increasing the profitability of cattle production. While this report is largely concerned with understanding how the food system can be influenced to provide healthier diets, climate change necessarily interacts with that goal, particularly through the production system. Dramatic changes in the climate may have a direct, long-term effect on Bangladesh’s farming system. The Sustainable Development Goals have placed emphasis on reducing food loss and waste, which incorporate both post-harvest losses and losses once consumers have obtained food. Current estimates are that about 13.8 percent of food is lost or wasted, based on more recent, more rigorously collected estimates (FAO, 2019). Assuring food safety in Bangladesh is a multisectoral responsibility, as at least 15 different ministries have been involved in food control. However, the BSTI is the only food testing and permission-giving authority. As such, there are only standards on 187 food items and voluntary guidelines on about 500 further food products, leaving the remainder of the market unorganized.

Source of Information: Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health lead by IFPRI, IFPRI Discussion Paper 01902, December 2019

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Healthy diets must start with agriculture, beginning from choices related to production and cropping systems, and following through to the ways that foods are processed, preserved, and marketed. All of these steps must take place while food standards are applied, and with safe storage and hygienic preparation and handling. If food systems are oriented more towards nutrition, they can potentially deliver opportunities for people to choose diets with both adequate energy and nutrients. The potential of food systems for improved nutrition needs to be promoted to contribute to the economic efficiency, conservation of nutrients and enhanced quality and diversity of diets. Nutrition education needs to be integrated through the production, processing and consumption linkages in the food system. Linking community development policies to national programmes for the alleviation of hunger and malnutrition, with an emphasis on increasing the variety of foods consumed, is probably the best strategy for improving micronutrient malnutrition sustainably. To avoid massive health costs in the future, food systems must be shaped to become more nutrition-sensitive so that they can potentially lead to better diets and improved nutritional outcomes. An understanding of the different food systems elements that encompass potential entry points for innovations is required. This calls for more understanding of the current situation, and then plenty of work designing, planning and implementing programming options and policy enabling environment to leverage the food system to produce and demand safe and diversified diets. As a first step, in this paper we have identified a large set of research questions that, if answered, could shed light on both how the food system in Bangladesh works, and the rate of change of food system transformation in Bangladesh. Further, it can shed light on the implications of that transformation for diets among all socioeconomic groups.

Knowledge Management: Journal