Current Conditions: Food Security

Although food grain is more available in good harvest years, Bangladesh as a whole still has a very low level of nutrition. This means many households and individuals do not eat a balanced, nutritious diet, even in good years. Approximately 33 million of the 140 million people in Bangladesh cannot afford an average daily intake of more than 1800 kilocalories, according to the World Bank. (This is the minimum standard set by the World Food Program). For people in developing countries, the daily calorie average is 2,828. In Bangladesh, that average is only 2,190.

The major food security problem is that around half of the Bangladeshis remain below the established food based poverty line and as many as one third are in extreme poverty and severely undernourished despite the impressive increases in food grain availability.

Food for Very Poor Even More Limited
The very poor in Bangladesh simply do not have enough money for food, much less enough to eat nutritiously. Forty-nine percent of Bangladeshis fall below the poverty line, of which 36% percent of the total population survives on less than a dollar a day. Further compounding the problem is the fact that these groups frequently live in disaster-prone areas that face frequent flooding. During natural disasters, families often lose what few possessions they may own.

USAID's Response