Essays in Food and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh PDF Download

Author: Faria Huq
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Food security
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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"This paper uses the QUAIDS model to estimate demand elasticities of food categories in Bangladesh and analyze the change in consumption patterns between 2000 and 2007."--Conclusion

Author: Kazi Tamim Rahman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The socio-economic and demographic conditions of Bangladesh have changed dramatically during the last three decades after economic and political reforms in 1991, which lead to change in food preferences both in rural and urban areas. Following the global trend of increasing commodity prices, the price hike in Bangladesh has raised policy concerns regarding the potential shifts in consumption patterns and welfare loss. Furthermore, the agricultural industry and the food supply in Bangladesh is highly susceptible to the effects of climate change and increased frequency of extreme weather events. The accurate and timely insights on food demand patterns in Bangladesh under the changing socio-economic scenarios can have important implications for food and nutritional security, price stability, poverty alleviation and appropriate import-export policy of the country. Policies on these issues cannot produce desired outcome without accurate estimation of consumer demand. However, despite the increasing need for improved understanding of food demand in Bangladesh, the literature in this area is relatively limited. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide insight on food demand and supply in Bangladesh by utilizing recent advancements in demand modeling and the latest and most complete data available on household food consumption in Bangladesh. The first essay examines welfare consequences of rising food prices in Bangladesh utilizing the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) demand model. Bangladeshi households experienced a sharp increase in food commodity prices during the last two decades especially in the period of 2007-2008. Inflation moved to two-digit level in 2007-08 and also in 2010-11 reaching 12.28% and 10.89% respectively, mostly driven by inflation in food prices. Estimating welfare impact of rising food price utilizing the prevalent demand models like the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and its' family models may lead to biased estimate due to a number of practical limitations of these models. The EASI model has number of advantages over AIDS due to its flexibility in analysis of disaggregated consumer level data. In Essay 1, we utilize EASI model to estimate price and expenditure elasticities of 14 major food items using secondary data extracted from Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The estimated elasticities are then used to evaluate the welfare consequences of rising food prices in Bangladesh. Welfare analysis based on both actual price change and simulated price change indicates that the welfare loss is the highest for lower income household. Further, the results indicate that the welfare loss of rural households was higher compared to that of urban households. The focus of the Essay 2 is on the analysis of pre-commitments in food demand in Bangladesh. Pre-committed demand is the portion of demand where the quantity demanded is not sensitive to changes in price or income. In the presence of pre-commitments, the demand is almost perfectly inelastic over the pre-committed portion of demand leading to biased estimates if it is not accounted for in modeling. The phenomenon of pre-committed demand for food has been more commonly observed in developing countries. Similar demand patterns are likely in Bangladesh with high proportion of low-income households and strong dependence on a range of staple food items by Bangladeshi households. Thus, in Essay 2, we utilize the generalized EASI (GEASI) demand model to estimate the demand elasticities of 14 major food items in Bangladesh by accounting for potential pre-commitments. The evidence of pre-committed demand is found in case of rice, pulse, vegetables and onion which accounts for 16.20%, 32.04%, 9.73% and 21.82% respectively. The new insights generated by the analysis in Essay 2 have important policy implications and can inform policy initiatives related to social safety net programs and food security of low-income households in Bangladesh. The Essay 3 focusses on forecasting supply and demand of rice in Bangladesh. Rice is not only the main staple food in Bangladesh but is also the single most important agricultural crop in terms of its contribution to national economy and its role in creating income and employment opportunities and ensuring food security. The analysis of rice supply and demand has always been at the center of policy makers attention in Bangladesh since the deficit tends to cause significant increase in price and resulting consumer welfare loss, while the surplus tends to result in price reductions negatively affecting farm profitability and household wellbeing in rural areas where the rice farming is the main source of income. Thus, the objective of this study is to forecast the supply and demand of rice with an aim to improve the understanding of potential deficit or surplus trends in the short- and long-term future. The analysis in Essay 3 utilizes ARIMA, Holt-Winter, and double exponential forecasting models. The findings reveal that both rice production and consumption will gradually increase in the short-run and in the long-run in Bangladesh. The forecasting results by ARIMA and Holt-Winter approaches show that there might be deficit in rice production in Bangladesh both in short-run and long-run with exceptions of rare surplus years. However, the results of double exponential approach indicate potential surplus in rice production both in the short-run and the long-run. Importantly, the deficits and surpluses are not large enough in magnitude to influence the price of the rice. The findings of the study would be useful for policy makers to formulate policies on rice production, distribution, export and import.

Author: Ahmed, Akhter
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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representative sample of rural Bangladeshi households. • With the onset of the pandemic, combined with the lockdown restrictions imposed from March through May 2020, moderate and severe food insecurity tripled to 45 percent. This was likely driven by income losses and difficulties accessing food because of shop closures. • By January 2021, the proportion of moderately or severely food insecure households had largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. The September-October 2021 survey showed no meaningful further change in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity despite the strict national lockdown imposed in July-August 2021. • A different picture emerges when we include the prevalence of mild food insecurity. The proportion of households reporting any food insecurity (mild, moderate or severe) increased from the pre-pandemic average of 45.7 percent to 87.8 percent in June 2020, before declining to 70.9 percent in January 2021 and 68 percent in September-October 2021. Dimensions of food insecurity that include consuming less diverse diets, being unable to eat healthy/nutritious food, and above all, being worried about not having enough food increased dramatically at the start of the pandemic and have remained elevated. • Pre-pandemic, the majority of rural households in our sample were fully food secure; 18 months after the onset of the pandemic only 32 percent report no forms of food insecurity. • In the immediate months after the outbreak (June 2020), many rural households coped by reducing expenditures on non-food goods, electricity and other utilities, and health-related items. The use of these forms of coping mechanisms has subsequently declined. However, the proportion of rural households that purchased food on credit (69 percent in June 2020) has barely changed and in all surveys fielded since the start of the pandemic, more than half of surveyed households have borrowed money to buy food. The continued use of savings and the ongoing use of credit to purchase food is consistent with the elevated levels of worry about not having enough food. • A substantial share of rural households reported receiving cash or in-kind safety net support during the pandemic, mostly from government sources. • Continued and expanded support from safety nets may be important, as many rural households face ongoing food insecurity and are using unsustainable coping strategies.

Author: Ecker, Olivier
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Poor-quality diets are one of the leading causes of malnutrition and common non-communicable disease. In this study, we use nationally representative household survey data and food demand system estimations to analyze dietary change and changing consumer preferences for different foods in the context of urbanization in low- and middle-income countries. We estimate and compare income and price elasticities of total food demand and the demand for 15 food groups in rural, urban, and city areas of Bangladesh for 2010 and 2016. We then use Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition regressions to explore how much of the observed food consumption changes can be explained by changes in revealed consumer preferences vis-à-vis changes in household income and food prices. The results show that Bangladeshi diets shifted from coarse to refined rice, and consumer preferences for vegetables and pulses were relatively low, contributing to worsening dietary quality. On the other hand, the consumption of nutritious, animal-source foods including fish, poultry, and eggs increased due to high consumer preferences and declining food prices-partly thanks to governmental production support. Regarding the dietary implications of rapid urbanization, the analysis suggests that rural consumers’ diets will largely follow the trajectory of urban consumers in Bangladesh.

Author: Akhter Ahmed
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Interest has grown in leveraging cash transfer programs with nutrition interventions to improve child nutrition at scale. However, little is known about how doing so affects household economic well-being. We study a program providing cash or food transfers, with or without nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), to poor women in rural Bangladesh. We find that adding BCC to cash or food transfers leads to larger impacts on both consumption and assets - an apparent puzzle, given the transfer value is unchanged. Evidence suggests this occurs through the BCC inducing increases in income generation - plausibly by improving households’ social capital and empowerment.

Author: Akhter Ahmed
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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The importance of children’s nutritional status for subsequent human capital formation, the limited evidence of the effectiveness of social protection interventions on child nutrition, and the absence of knowledge on the intra-household impacts of cash and food transfers or how they are shaped by complementary programming motivate this paper. We implemented two, linked randomized control trials in rural Bangladesh, with treatment arms including cash transfers, a food ration, or a mixed food and cash transfer, as well as treatments where cash and nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) or where food and nutrition BCC were provided. Only cash plus nutrition BCC had a significant impact on nutritional status, but its effect on height-forage z scores (HAZ) was large, 0.25SD. We explore the mechanisms underlying this impact. Improved diets – including increased intake of animal source foods – along with reductions in illness in the cash plus BCC treatment arm are consistent with the improvement we observe in children’s HAZ.

Author: Sraboni, Esha
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 101

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Using nationally representative survey data from rural Bangladesh, this paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and indicators of individual dietary quality. Our findings suggest that women’s empowerment is associated with better dietary quality for individuals within the household, with varying effects across the life course. Women’s empowerment is associated with more diverse diets for children younger than five years, but empowerment measures are not consistently associated with increases in nutrient intake for this age group. Women’s empowerment is positively and significantly associated with adult men’s and women’s dietary diversity and nutrient intakes. Different empowerment domains may have different impacts on nutrition, but other characteristics, such as maternal schooling and household socioeconomic status, may play a more important role for younger children. The importance of maternal education in the dietary quality of young children, and the relatively greater importance of women’s empowerment for older children and adults, imply that policies designed to empower women and improve nutritional status should be informed by knowledge of which specific domains of women’s empowerment matter for particular nutritional outcomes at specific stages of the life course.

Author: de Brauw, Alan
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
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 are 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.

Author: Zakir Hossain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pregnancy
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
It is widely assumed that the improvement of nutrition is determined by economic factors alone. Yet such a perspective fails to explain why pregnant women, regardless of their socioeconomic status, consume less food. In view of the inadequacy of economic models, we propose a culture analysis of the dietary beliefs and behavior of pregnant women of rural Bangladesh. The notion of humoral disposition has been found to be practiced in dietary and health values among rural women. The common referent of the humoral properties lies in the cognition of a "hot" and "cold" dichotomy in relation to the properties of food and body-state. The transition from puberty to pregnancy signifies changes from a relative "cold" body condition to a "hot" state. Pregnant women are viewed as particularly susceptible to variation in hot/cold disposition in body-state. In order to neutralize the undesirable heat and to attain equilibrium, women prefer diets containing elements of coolness. Health is believed to depend upon the careful maintenance of this balance in food habits. The practices originating from this belief system are the delimiting factors of rural women's dietary habits, and therefore should be reckoned with in any effort of directed nutritional change in Bangladesh.

Author: Ahmed, Akhter, ed.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 9845063713
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
Securing Food for All in Bangladesh presents an array of research that collectively address four broad issues: (1) agricultural technology adoption; (2) input use and agricultural productivity; (3) food security and output market; and (4) poverty, food security, and women’s empowerment. The fifteen chapters of the book address diverse aspects within these four themes. Access to sufficient food by all people at all times to meet their dietary needs is a matter of critical importance. Despite declining arable agricultural land, Bangladesh has made commendable progress in boosting domestic food production. The growth in overall food production has been keeping ahead of population growth, resulting in higher per capita availability of food over time. In the early 1970s, Bangladesh was a food-deficit country with a population of about 75 million. Today, the population is 165 million, and the country is now self-sufficient in rice production, which has tripled over the past three decades. Along with enhanced food production, increased income has improved people’s access to food. Furthermore, nutritional outcomes have improved significantly. Nevertheless, the challenges to food and nutrition security remain formidable. Future agricultural growth and food and nutrition security are threatened by population growth, worsening soil fertility, diminishing access to land and other scarce natural resources, increasing vulnerability of crop varieties to pests and diseases, and persistent poverty leading to poor access to food. In addition, the impacts of climate change—an increase in the incidence of natural disasters, sea intrusion, and salinity—will exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity in the coming decades if corrective measures are not taken. Aligned with this context, the authors of the book explore policy options and strategies for developing agriculture and improving food security in Bangladesh. Securing Food for All in Bangladesh, with its breadth and scope, will be an invaluable resource for policymakers, researchers, and students dedicated to improving people’s livelihoods in Bangladesh.