Climate Change and Food Security in Bangladesh: A Case Study on Sirajgan Sadar Upazilla

Abstract

Food is considered one of the five elements of basic human needs and to fulfil the dietary deficiency, the developing and less developing states struggle on a regular basis. Bangladesh is one of the countries with lower middle-income status and is engulfed by overpopulation with its current population of 168 million (approx.). To feed the extra mouth, the country not only relies on its domestic production but also on food importation from abroad. However, like man-made issues (food adulteration, illegal stockpiling of food grains, artificial shortage of food supply in the market, high food pricing, etc.) natural causes like flood and river erosion thwarted the overall food production and moreover, affected the food security programme at the micro (household) and macro(national) level. The Sirajganj district of Bangladesh is located in the northern part of Bangladesh and most of the residents earn their livelihood by means of agriculture. Almost every year during the monsoon, thousands of people in this district suffer as both flood and riverbank erosion damages their croplands and livelihoods. Food security is a complex web as it is intertwined with the overall development indicators of human beings and is being affected by adverse climate change. As part of the human security programme, the key objective is to highlight the prime causes which are causing food insecurity in the survey area and moreover, draw a sketch of the overall food security status of the Sirajganj district of Bangladesh.