National Food Policy 2006.

The National Food policy is a multi-sectoral policy and its coverage is national. Its goal is to ensure a dependable food security system for all people of the country at all times and its main objectives are: to ensure adequate and stable supply of safe and nutritious food; to enhance purchasing power of the people for increased food accessibility; and to ensure adequate nutrition for all especially for women and children.
The Policy firstly focuses on food security and underlines that increased food availability and access to food may mitigate hunger. The nutritional status of vulnerable individuals has to be improved. It is essential that improved health and sanitation facilities are made available at the community level and be effectively brought to children, women and other vulnerable household members. Targeted food distribution programmes are considered as major factors in enhancing household food security for the poor. The Policy uses a twin-track approach. First, to increase short-run access to food thereby helping immediate food security needs, indeed a number of programmes use direct transfers of food. In order to increase the poor household’s long-term access to food, the Policy focuses on development projects designed to raise sustained capacity of the poor to increase their ability to acquire food through employment-generating economic growth. The Policy also focuses on the need to ensure safe drinking water and improved sanitation against water-borne diseases and sets forth that testing and control of water quality, health education, including proper child-care practices, infrastructure development are highly important.
Promotion of efficient and sustained domestic food production is a key aspect of long-term food security. To achieve this, increased food production and agriculture diversification is needed through developed modern agricultural systems. Improved agricultural technologies, appropriate research and agricultural loans will be used for agricultural development and extension, the best and most efficient use of available land, the efficient use of water resources and for increased production of livestock, fish and other non-crop items.
The Policy underlines that the major objective of the public food distribution system is to supply required quantity of grain and income transfer programmes for the poor, who are unable to purchase minimum required quantity of food from the market at prevailing market prices. Rapid growth of the rural economy is a pre-requisite for enhancing household food security on a sustainable basis. To attain improved food security at the household level special training, supply of basic assets and credit facilities (especially for poor women) are needed. Women-centered initiatives relating to production and marketing activities for cereals, livestock and non-cereal commodities will get special priority.
The development of efficient food market to achieve food security goal will include non-discriminatory credit, development and enforcement of quality standards, trade-supportive legal and regulatory environment and selective non-distortionary public food market intervention for price stabilisation. Market infrastructure of appropriate quality and reliability is the key determinant for sustainable growth of the overall economy and trade. To help the private sector food trade to contribute significantly to enhance the food security of the population, long-term investment in storage, transportation and handling infrastructure are necessary. The Policy emphasizes that the increased participation and reducing barriers to the availability of credit to the new entrants is an important precondition for development of an improved market structure and to ensure availability of credit for food trade.
A well-functioning early warning system is an important tool for national food supply management and improved national food security system. Poverty and food insecurity is higher in areas with a high risk of natural disasters. These natural shocks cause irreparable damage to the farming systems of the poor farmers and immediately make them more food insecure. Disaster preparedness and post disaster rehabilitation are important components of food security. The Government will take measures to mitigate the negative effects of these disasters and also use public food grain stocks to respond quickly to disaster-induced emergency food situations. Regarding transitory shock management the Policy aims to enable grain stocks equal to three months of emergency demand along with a relief system to distribute food, clean water, medicines and other essentials in case of emergency demand.
According to article-15 (a) of the Constitution of Bangladesh, it shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to secure its citizens to the provision of basic necessities of food. As per Government's Allocation of Business, it is the duty of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management to establish a dependable food security system for the nation. The Government of Bangladesh is firmly committed to achieve food security for all, defined at the 1996 World Food Summit as: access by all people at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. This provision is also reflected in all the development plans of the Government.