Increased restrictions on international migration by the primary host countries may exacerbate food security in high-migrant source countries like Bangladesh, an international food policy think tank alerted on Thursday.

Launching its flagship annual publication – 2018 Global Food Policy Report – in the city, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said, ‘Rise of isolationism and protectionism, visible in the US withdrawal from multilateral trade and climate agreements, the UK’s ‘Brexit’ from the EU, and growing anti-immigration rhetoric in developed countries, threatens to slow progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals and improved food security and nutrition.’

The Washington-based think tank, IFPRI, surveyed over 1,000 individuals in 105 countries to know public perception about food security and globalization – 76 per cent of them said tighter borders and migration restrictions will impact food security, reports the UNB.  

Sixty-six percent of the respondents think recent antiglobalisation policies and rhetoric will harm the hungry and impoverished. Of the respondents, an overwhelming 72 per cent are dissatisfied with food policies in their own regions while 55 per cent are dissatisfied with global food policies.

‘Policies that encouraged globalization through more open trade, migration, and knowledge sharing have been critical to recent unprecedented reductions in hunger and poverty,’ said Shenggen Fan, Director-General, IFPRI while speaking at the 2018 Global Food Policy Report launch event.

‘Enacting policies to leverage the benefits of globalization while minimizing the risks that fuel antiglobalisation will be critical to meet the Sustainable Development Goals to end hunger and poverty by 2030,’ said the IFPRI DG.  

IFPRI Country Representative for Bangladesh, Akhter Ahmed, said, ‘Foreign remittances from migrant Bangladeshi workers play a key role in the domestic economy and help in ensuring food security for migrant source families. Any drastic changes in international migration policies in host countries with large Bangladeshi population may pose a challenge to food security of those families.’

Jatiya Sangsad Speaker, Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and Economic Affairs Adviser to the prime minister, Dr Mashiur Rahman, addressed the programme as chief and special guests respectively while the launch event discussion panelists included: former caretaker government adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun, Krishi Gobeshana Foundation (KGF) Executive Director Dr Wais Kabir and BIDS Senior Research Fellow Dr Nazneen Ahmed. Emeritus Professor Dr M A Sattar Mandal chaired the session.

In this year’s report IFPRI stated that food systems in South Asia are at a crossroads and climate change is the most pressing issue the region facing with implications for the food security of already vulnerable populations. 

‘Increasing climatic variability, extreme weather events, and rising temperatures pose new challenges to ensuring food and nutrition security in the region.’

The 2018 Global Food Policy Report noted that South Asia region is one of the least integrated and suggested for better intraregional linkages and increased intraregional trade to help the region to grow.

IFPRI report said, ‘South Asia region is one of the least integrated internally: intraregional trade accounts for only 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade, whereas it accounts for 25 percent in Southeast Asia. Similarly, intraregional investment makes up less than 1 percent of overall investment.’

Global Food Policy Report 2018 stated that better intraregional linkages and increased intraregional trade will help the region to grow. ‘In 2018, South Asian countries 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.’

It said, ‘South Asia is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Climate variables such as temperature, rainfall, flooding, and drought increasingly affect agricultural activities in the region. Most South Asian countries weathered some form of natural calamity in 2017.’

To cite a few examples IFPRI referred to last year’s flood in Nepal that affected about 1.7 million people and damaged more than 34,000 homes and to heavy floods in Bangladesh that damaged crops, including the country’s main food staple, rice. ‘Flooding and drought at turns 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; and below-average rains sharply reduced 2016 cereal production in Pakistan,’ added IFPRI.

IFPRI report observed that Bangladesh has achieved one of the fastest and most prolonged reductions in child stunting in the world.  ‘As of 2016, social protection programs covered 28 per cent of households and accounted for around 12 percent of public spending (2.2 per cent of GDP). With its National Social Security Strategy, Bangladesh is widening the scope of social protection to include employment policies and social insurance.’

It further said, ‘Through the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) research project, the country aims to identify actions and investments in agriculture that will help improve nutrition and empower women.’

The Global Food Policy Report 2018 stated that Bangladesh 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, which will construct eight modern steel grain-storage silos for rice and wheat and 500,000 silos for households in disaster-prone areas.