While Bangladesh has made notable progress, especially in terms of meeting the MDG target of halving the proportion of undernourished people, it remains challenged by high poverty rates, severe climate change impacts, land utilisation constraints and price volatilities. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to international food price shocks as a net food importing country but has the potential to improve agricultural productivity and close yield gaps in a variety of crops and improve efficiency in usage of inputs. Efforts should be intensified to diversify production and import sources for market resilience. Bangladesh must expand the scope and coverage of national plans for climate change adaptation and must enhance engagements with South Asian partners for agricultural trade liberalisation and natural resource management.
This book chapter, “Ensuring Food Security in Bangladesh: Issues beyond production and challenges ahead”, is written by Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD and Mr Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD, for the book titled Regional Cooperation for Sustainable Food Security in South Asia, published by the Taylor & Francis Group.