Download Food Security and Livelihood in Coastal area under increased

Food security and livelihood in coastal area under increased salinity
and frequent tidal surge
Abstract
Food availability is a crucial dimension of food security in an agrarian society. It is largely
realized through own food production of a specific society. Seasonality plays an important role
in food security. This paper analyses the existing threat to food security and livelihood in coastal
areas of developing countries, particularly in Bangladesh, with a focus on climate change and
seasonality. There is a persistent food shortage during the sowing of crops and the pre-harvest
period. The food deficit remains high during mid-August to end of October (68-95%) while it is
the lowest in December (21%). During the pre-harvest period, farmers have to invest a lot of
money at a time though they cannot afford it. Evidence suggests that food loans are common
among the poor or small farmers during the food deficit period or in the event of flood. In
response to the various sources on investment over 78% of the respondents were likely to have
loans from micro-finance institutions and local individual money lenders. Problems remain as
the salinity and over-fishing has drastically depleted open-water fisheries. Reviving livelihoods
still remain a challenge for the vulnerable households especially in areas where agricultural
diversity is very limited. Therefore, alternative livelihoods initiatives such as homestead or
community-based cage fishing, cash grant and training on non-farm activities of women and
men, generating employment through public work programmes need to be in place to ensure
food security and livelihood of vulnerable people living in coastal areas.
Keywords: Coastal area, Climate change, Food security, Livelihood, Salinity
1. Introduction
Food security (FS) is an important issue in global south such as Bangladesh, particularly when it
comes to the people affected by climate change. According to FAO, 805 million people are food
insecure and of them 98% still live in developing countries (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2014) and
more than 30% are in South Asia (Lal et al., 2011). Increasing global food demand is largely
determined by population growth (Tweeten and Thompson, 2009) as clearly mentioned by
Sample (2007) that “To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be
produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years
combined, the experts said”. Currently around 3 billion people, almost half of the world’s
population, live within 200 kilometers of a coastline and this figure is likely to double by 2025
(Creel, 2003). In Asia and the Pacific, the sea level is expected to rise approximately 3–16 cm
by 2030 and 7–50 cm by 2070 in conjunction with regional sea level variability (Preston et al.,
2006) and the number of people facing floods in coastal areas will increase from 13 million to 94
million annually, with 60% of this increase occurring in South Asia (the coasts of Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka) and 20% in Southeast Asia (the coasts of Indonesia,
the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam) (Cruz et al. 2007). The highest number of
undernourished was found in Asia, while the highest prevalence is in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO,
2013). However, in Bangladesh, almost 50 percent of the population lives in coastal areas
(Brown, 2003).
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries often faced with natural calamity (Huq, 2001;
UNDP, 2007; Huq and Ayers, 2007; Yahya et. al., 2010; Piguet, 2008, Climate Risk Index,
2010). Higher growing season temperatures triggered by climate change can have dramatic
impacts on agricultural productivity, thus household incomes, and overall food security (Battisti
and Naylor, 2009; Droogers and Aerts, 2005; Alcamo et al., 2007; Barnett et al., 2005). It has
been estimated that ensuring food security through costs of under nutrition interventions are as
low as US$0.05–3.60 per person annually while it can reap benefits as high as 8–30 times the
costs (Horton et al. 2009). Humanitarian, environmental and global security concerns demand a
global commitment to improve the lot of the large proportion of the human population that is
currently food insecure and requires prompt actions on building resilience to climate shocks and
preparedness for adaptation, food price volatility, halting land degradation and boosting
productive assets and infrastructure (Beddington et. al., 2012). The country like Bangladesh is
under serious threat as a result of climate change and the coastal areas of Bangladesh are already
affected through increased salinity as well as frequent tidal surge. The coast of Bangladesh is
approximately 710 km long which has a very low-laying flat land comprising of 62 % of the land
having an elevation less than three meters (Hasan, Mobassarul et al. 2009).
Climate change threatens to decrease agricultural productivity, increase food insecurity (Alcamo
et al., 2007; Barnett et al., 2005). It also challenges the livelihoods and survival of poor people,
particularly small farmers, livestock keepers and the landless in least developed countries. The
impact of climate change forces some to seek livelihoods elsewhere and may trap others into
poverty. Every year people are migrating from coastal to urban areas because of environmental
degradation in the form of frequent flooding, cyclones and storms, which makes their lives
miserable. The continuous intrusion of salt water deep into the main land would be having severe
negative impact on the eco-system and biodiversity, increase vulnerability of the landless poor
farmers causing significant damages to natural and built infrastructure that weaken the fight
against poverty and hunger by threatening their livelihood (Molden et al., 2010). The rationale
of this study is to understand food security of people living close to coastlines and what is
expected to happen with sea level rise influenced by climate change. Therefore, this article
examines the challenges of food security under the wider geophysical, environmental and
economic conditions in the south–western part of Bangladesh. Field research was carried in the
coastal areas of Bangladesh with the purpose of identifying the links between the current food
security and livelihood situation in the affected coastal areas of Bangladesh.
1.1 Status of Food Security in Bangladesh
Food security is measured in terms of per capita food consumption at the national level by the
average dietary energy supply (DES) in calories on the basis of national food balance sheets
(FBS) and food supplies as national averages (FAO, 1996). According to the FAO, the average
adult needs 2,300 kcal per day to lead a healthy and active life1. The people of Bangladesh have
a long history of suffering from food insecurity (Siddique et al, 2015). Food insecurity in the
present geographical area of Bangladesh prior to British rule (1757-1947) seems to have been
relatively unknown (Talukder, 2008). According to Uppal (1984), Bengal lost 1.5 million people
in 1943 in the most devastating famine of the twentieth century. In 1974, after three years of its
1
There are several different daily caloric benchmarks; the most widely used internationally is the FAO benchmark.
It is calculated based on an average of normative calorie requirements the FAO calculates for individual countries.
Until recently the benchmark was 2,100 calories per day. 2,300 calories reflects the FAO recommendation as of
June 2012.
independence from Pakistan, Bangladesh suffered its last major famine and the country lost
another hundred thousand of its population. All these famines were due to a lack of access to
food rather than food shortage, aggravated by a lack of political will to overcome the problem of
unsustainable livelihoods (Dreze et al., 1995; Sen, 1999). On an average during the period 19621988, Bangladesh lost about 0.5 million tonnes of rice annually as a result of floods that accounts
for nearly 30% of the country's average annual food grain imports (Paul and Rashid, 1993). Rice
dominates food and water consumption patterns in the country; it contributed to 72% of the total
calorie supply from food, and 81% and 79% of the total cropped and irrigated area, respectively,
in 2010 (Amarasinghe et al., 2014). The people living in coastal areas of Bangladesh are
suffering badly from deficiencies of nutrients like protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, causing
various nutritional disorders and diseases. Most of the poor in coastal areas still rely on wheat
through vulnerable-groups-development (VGD) scheme, food-for-education (FFE) and food-forwork (FFW) programmes and a chronology of food assisted programs is given in Table 1. The
Fig. 1 shows that coastal countries (like Bangladesh) have lower food availability globally than
landlocked countries, and that South Asia has lower food availability than the global average.
Table 1 Chronology of food assisted programmes
Fig. 1 Food availability in coastal vs. landlocked countries
2013 GFSI Availability Score 0-100, where 100 = best
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
3. Methodology
A mixed method interpretative empirical study combining quantitative household survey as well
as standard qualitative techniques such as focus group discussions and key informant interviews
is carried out to identify the challenges of food security in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. The
study was focused on how various driving forces like seasonal variation, tidal surges, salinity,
sea level rise induced by global warming, climate change are affecting food production, food
deficit as well as food accessibility. Quantitative part of the study was carried out to present
descriptive statistics. Questionnaire survey; focus group discussion (FGD) and key informant
interview were used as data collection techniques. The questionnaire survey was designed to
gather information and data in a more structured format related to food intake, natural calamities
and research participant’s perception about climate change, the other methods including FGD
and interview focused on open ended opinions and views of the research participants. During
data analysis and interpretation, Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Lingard et al.,
2011) and pair debriefing techniques (Dusaj, 2014) were used to get feedback from the
stakeholders and finally triangulation was made from the collected data.
3.1. Study Area
Satkhira district is located in south-western part of Bangladesh, namely Khulna division. It lies
along the border with West Bengal of India. It is bordered to the north by Jessore district, to the
south by the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Khulna district and to the west by Pargana district of
West Bengal, India as shown in Fig. 2. The annual average maximum temperature reaches
35.5°C and minimum temperature is 12.5°C. The annual rainfall is 1710 mm. The main rivers
are the Kopotakhi River across Dargapur union of Assasuni Upazilla, Morichap River,
Kholpotua River, Betna River, Raimangal River, Hariabhanga River, Ichamati River, Betrabati
River and Kalindi-Jamuna River (DoE, 2009). The physical features of the study area have been
dominated by surface water systems, the proximity of the sea in the south, the dynamic
morphology that is greatly governed by sedimentation processes, and the human induced
influence on the entire hydro-geophysical characteristics of the region. Satkhira having
extremely flat topography and located within 1-5 meters from the mean sea level. The southwestern Region of Bangladesh has been subjected to a plethora of hydro-geo-morphological
hazards which include poor drainage through its river systems, high rates of sedimentation on
river beds, acute low flow conditions during the dry season, salinity ingress along the rivers,
cyclonic storm surge, moisture stress in the dry season, rise in sea level, and to a lesser extent,
flood (Halcrow-WARPO, 2001). As the region is located in the coastal zone, it is significantly
influenced by tidal effects. According to available statistics on Coastal Zone, majority of the land
is within one meter from mean sea level, a significant proportion of which again falls below
high-tide level (Islam, 2005). The study area is affected by flood, storm surge and cyclones as
shown in Fig. 3. The inter-tidal floodplains located along the southern part are generally
inundated twice in a day.
Fig. 2 Map showing the Satkhira district (Source: Local Government Engineering
Department)
Fig. 3 Incidence or prevalence of different types of natural disasters in the study area
(Source: Shams and Takashi, 2013)
The survey was carried out in the village called Burigaoalini in Shyamnagar Upazila, Sathkhira
district. The total number of households in in the study area is 1493 and inhabitants of these
household, male 52.36% and female 47.64%. Literacy rate among them is 37.3% (BBS, 2011).
The incomes of the people are shown in Fig. 4. It is observed based on the household survey
(n=126) and the previous studies carried out by Shams and Takashi, 2013 that 39% of
household’s falls below the national poverty line of less than US $ 2 per day or US $ 60 per
month against the national average of 26% (Bhowmick, 2013) falling below the poverty line.
Satkhira district is more vulnerable to natural disasters as compared to coastal areas like
Bagherhat, Potuakhali and Barisal. It has been seriously affected by Cyclone Sidr (2007) and
Aila (2009). It was estimated that from 2009 to 2011 the total loss of rice yield in Satkhira
district was USD 1.9 million (Rabbani et al., 2013). Apart from natural disasters like cyclones
and flood, the study area is proximity to the Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove
forest and the UNESCO World Heritage. In the last three decades, the region has undergone
severe forms of environmental degradation, which devastated livelihoods of primarily the
farming communities, and lately of those involved in other livelihoods - one of the major reasons
for selection of this particular study area.
Fig. 4 Income range of the people in the study area (Source: Shams and Takashi, 2013)
The general occupation of the inhabitants in the Satkhira district during 80s had been farming
(76.6 %), mostly based on paddy cultivation (FAO, 1985). Since 1980s in many costal areas fry
collection has became main source of livelihood for women and children (Halim et al, 2001;
Mahmood and Ansary, 2013).
3.2. Research tools
Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected for this study by using following research
tools.
3.2.1. Questionnaire survey
A total number of 126 households were surveyed which were 8.44% of the total households
within the research site. The designed close-ended questionnaire was generally focused on the
household income, livelihood, and food consumption pattern. The questionnaire was designed
with multiple choice answers.
Table 1 Occupation of the people surveyed
3.2.2. Focus Group Discussion
Three FGDs were conducted in the study site to get enrich empirical qualitative data. One was
arranged local health professionals (e.g. village doctors2); second one was conducted separately
with locally well-known knowledgeable persons. The last one was conducted with women. Each
FGD comprised of 7 members. One of the field investigators presented the issue on the
perception of food security and climate change and the other two members of the team recorded
the responses of the participants on specific issue. After the each FGD session, the raised issues
were reviewed and the reports on each FGD were prepared on the basis of responses from the
participants.
3.2.3. Key informant interviews
Ten interviews were conducted to collect the information on the specific issues on climate
change and its impact on health. Interviews were conducted with two most well–known
knowledgeable persons from each segment of the coastal community. Questions were asked by
one of the researchers and responses were written down by two other researchers. Interview
process has been conducted with five stakeholders groups:
1) Fishing community,
2) Staffs of forest office,
3) Teacher of madrasa/school,
4) Local residents, and
5) Non- government service personnel etc.
3.3. Data validation and analysis
The survey data was edited for accuracy and coded manually to generate descriptive statistics as
well as making visual presentation.
For triangulation, quantitative data was supported by
qualitative data derived through interview and focus group discussion methods. However, cross2
locally called as kabiraj or palli chikitshak, homeopathic doctors and health workers of NGOs etc.
checking was carried out through pair debriefing and sharing findings with stakeholders to
ensure the quality and validate the generated data and interpretation.
4. Findings and Discussions
Household survey showed that among the inhabitants 31.75% lives on agriculture, 26.72%
involved with aquaculture/shrimp farming, 26.19% of them are Government employees and
19.84% are Local Government Representatives (Table 2).
The study identifies the underlying causes for food security and its correlation with natural
disasters, climate change and seasonality. How livelihoods have evolved over the years in the
coastal areas has been discussed. It is an all-out effort to understand the paradox why people
involved with food production being often food insecure. The research participants’ perceptions
about food security in the coastal areas vary with their economic status. To most men and
women, food security means they have enough food to be fed three times a day which includes
rice with vegetables.
Mominur Rahman who is a farmer mentioned “If I can have a full stomach three times a day, I
would treat myself as very lucky indeed”. Therefore, participants who are living in poverty
interpret food security as having a full stomach i.e. free from hunger.
Women living in coastal areas prefer to stock food at home rather than to have money in hand.
As one of the female participants said:
“If men have money in hand then they can spend that money for purposes other than
buying food. But if we have food then we can use it for consumption and sell it at the
time of other needs”.
The study also finds that 32% people think food accessibility is a major challenge. Specially,
women prefer to have a stock of food at home over having money in hand, expressed that:
“We might have money in hand but still have no food when we need it. Sometimes,
though we have money, it is not possible to buy food as markets are on weekly basis and
sometimes far away and it is difficult to find a person to buy it”.
It was found from our survey that 78% respondents in the study area preferred food loan during
the pre-harvest period or in the event of flood. Rice is taken as a food loan and has to be paid
back with interest but no collateral is required. This type of borrowing relies on personal
relations, client-patron relationships and social networking. The loans have to be repaid with rice
after harvesting at a high rate of interest. When a food loan is not available, people have to
borrow money or sell their assets. Borrowing money varies from short to long-term
arrangements. Among the respondents, 48% mentioned that obtaining money is the major
problem for the upcoming crop production. In response to the various sources on investment
over 78% of the respondents were likely to have loans from micro-finance institutions and
money lenders. Most of the NGOs provide their loans only for production purposes. But the
survey reveals that borrowers are using the money for consumption purposes, especially for
buying food. It is reported that this practice of using production loans for consumption puts
families into a cycle of debt.
Fish consumption by the poor is seasonal as fishes have gone beyond the reach of common
people. Over 79% of the respondents claimed that they consumed fishes twice in a week in the
past than at present. Ashim Kumar aged 42, a farmer said that:
“When I was young, we could have fish such as koi (Anabas testudineus), shing
(Amblyceps mangois), magur (Clarias gariepinus)) almost two times a week and now the
fishes are hardly in our weekly diet as many of them are hard to find”.
They once fished in open water during the floods and in the swamps during the winter and the
dry season. The salinity and over-fishing has drastically depleted open-water fisheries. In the
past, milk was mostly consumed through various types of food. Milk price has gone up by 11
times in the last three decades and consumption of milk in the study area is less than 37
mg/capita/day as compared to the recommended value of 250 mg/capita/day. The Table 3 below
shows the food consumption of the study area and makes a comparison with National and other
countries average as shown in Table 4.
Table 3 Weekly Intake of an Adult living in Coastal Area
Table 4 Global food consumption kcal/capita/day (source: FAO 2002, Joachim von Braun
(2007), Joachim von Braun (2009), Akramov et al., 2010)
The gendered division of labor in agricultural and food production is prominently visible in the
study area. Women are mainly responsible for the post-harvest processing of food grains. Poor
women have to manage and prepare food with limited resources during the time of crisis and
often they have to go hungry and feed their children and husbands. The legitimacy of women’s
and children’s claims to food may rest on the continuation of the household and undermined by
its breakdown (Kabeer, 1991).
Seasonality plays a crucial role in food security. There are three cropping seasons in Bangladesh:
winter, summer, and the monsoon. During summer, jute, aush, BR3, BR11 and BR29 (high-yield
varieties) and new hybrid varieties of rice and maize are grown. During the monsoon season,
roadcast or transplanted aman, deep-water aman, and BR11 rice varieties are grown, and during
the winter, boro and high-yielding varieties of rice including wheat, pulses, mustard, sesame,
winter vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and spices are grown. There is a persistent food
shortage during the sowing of crops and the pre-harvest period, when farmers have to invest a lot
of money at a time when they cannot afford it. The people face food deficiency more or less all
throughout the year as shown in Fig. 5. The food deficit remains high during mid-August to end
of October (68-95%) while it is the lowest in December (21%). This is due to rainy season as
most of the lands are inundated by flood water and foods are not easily available. They thus have
to generate resources by selling food grains and cash crops, or by borrowing. Farmers have to
tighten their grip on consumption during this time. The pre-harvest period is the very crucial
period for the farmers. Most of them have to ration their consumption during these periods,
especially during March to April and during August to October, especially during the last half of
the October to cope with floods. They have to cook less compared to other times and sometimes
have to take only two meals per day. They rely on sweet potatoes to replace rice during pre-
harvest time. Sometimes the men in the household temporarily migrate to Dhaka for earning
leaving their family members at home. The food deficit is less during the month DecemberJanuary due to harvesting period for rice and growth of vegetables.
For the quantitative data, average non-staple calorie intake was used as an indicator for
household security, as this represents the real food security status more sharply than other
indicators. Whenever there is a food shortage, households try to maintain their calorie intake to
an optimum level. First, households avoid expensive foods such as non-staple foods, and then
they switch to cheap staple foods like sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat or corn. Non-staple food
intake has a lower priority in a situation of food shortage. Hence, non-staple calorie intake gives
a good insight into household food security.
Agricultures (31.75%) though considerably reduced from 76.6% in 1980s still represent the main
livelihoods in the coastal areas of Satkhira. A sizable percentage (26.72%) of rural costal
population is directly or indirectly involved in fisheries. With prevalence of brackish water
facilitates, the aquaculture sector (shrimp cultivation mainly) represents major livelihood
opportunity in the area where the annual pattern is shrimp-fallow-Boro. As mentioned earlier
almost 43% of the communities in the studied area reported that they do not produce Aman as
those are dedicated shrimp area. Shrimp ghers generate a significant demand of labor especially
in the preparatory phases i.e. earth works, liming and lining etc. The problems of water logging
occurred due to fish pond and shrimp ghers in the study area.
According to the respondents, due to the water scarcity, loss of crop yield and fisheries many
people involved with farming are migrating to urban areas as day laborers (51.59%). The
fisherman is switching to other alternative occupation such as working in the brick field
(73.01%), earth digging (9.52%) and in mills and factories (15.08%) as shown in Fig. 6 below.
Among the respondents, 80.95% respondents said that a drought like situation exists over last 5
years and this has resulted into accumulation of salts. In the past, during rainy seasons the salts
were washed away to the sea by the rush of heavy rain water.
Fig. 6 Alternative source of employment
Seasonal migration on a contract basis to obtain rice is common among poor households.
Circular migration among some of the poor and well-off households for wage labor and business
purposes is also taking place. Out-country migration is relatively rare due to their lack of
affordability.
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
Food availability is a crucial dimension of food security. However, the connection between the
physical environment and making a living should come as no surprise. The prolonged flooding
and intrusion of salt water in the coastal area has significantly affected the livelihoods and
income status of the vulnerable households depending on marginal farming and agricultural day
labor with a average daily food intake of 1748 kcal against the national average of 2215 kcal.
There is a persistent food shortage during the sowing of crops and the pre-harvest period. The
food deficit remains high during mid-August to end of October (68-95%) while it is the lowest in
December (21%). The present study finds the existing food security challenges in coastal areas
of Bangladesh is due to degradation of environment, intrusion of increased salinity and frequent
tidal surges resulting from sea level rise and threat from climate change.
Reviving livelihoods still remains a challenge for the vulnerable households especially in areas
where agricultural diversity is very limited. This also limits the access to income with serious
implication on food security and nutritional status of the vulnerable population. Failure to secure
livelihoods in coastal areas is expected to drive millions of vulnerable people to the cities located
further upland. In order to overcome the challenges of ensuring livelihood and food security
following measures should be taken:
Support should be given to rehabilitate marginal farmers, day laborers with cash grant and cash.
There should be incentive such as food for training on homestead gardening, fisheries production
and poultry rearing. A fundamental policy shift is needed in water and energy use in food
systems, which requires investments for tackling climate change; conserving water and energy
resources developing salt tolerant varieties of rice and vegetables, building resilient farming
systems and reforming local food market and trade.
Cash grant and training on non-farm activities of women for example micro-business for women
in the form of handicrafts is a potential subsectors. The literacy rate must be increased along with
life-skill for sustainable development so that they can switch to other options for livelihood.
There should be mechanism in place to combine indigenous and scientific knowledge to address
the challenges of climate change and threat to the livelihood of the poor people living in coastal
areas. The Government should provide safety net to ensure food security through sustainable
water management policy with meaningful participation of all stakeholders living in the coastal
areas. Priority should be given to producing food which consumes less amount of water and
develop varieties of crops which could have resistance to salinity of water. There is an urgent
need to establish robust emergency food reserves and financing capacity that can deliver rapid
humanitarian responses to vulnerable populations threatened by food crises.
Finally, as there is no easy solutions to vulnerability of coastal people affected by climate
change, but there could be other possible ways forward to reduce food insecurity by improving
the livelihoods of poor people through technological innovations. Specially it is important to
encourage entrepreneurs to develop local technological capabilities and capacities to grow more
and wider variety of food and to integrate their activities into the wider national economy. In this
case, public-private partnership (PPP) should be in place to secure livelihood of the local people.
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Table 1 Chronology of food assisted programs
Name of the program
Nature and target
PL-480 (no longer in
existence)
Provides food for construction of roads,
dams, etc.
1960
Food-for-Work (FFW)
Provides food for construction of roads,
dams etc.
Provides food for maintenance of rural
roads.
Provides food for vulnerable households
(especially after the floods of 1988, 1998
and 2004)
Provides food for vulnerable households
(especially destitute women)
Provides food to school children
1974
Rural Maintenance Program
(RMP)
Vulnerable Group Feeding
(VGF) program
Vulnerable Group
Development (VGD)
Food-for-Education (FFE)
Year of initiation
1978
1979
1985
1999
Table 2 Occupation of the people surveyed
Pattern of Occupation
Number
Agriculture
40
Business involving shrimp farming/fishing
12
Teaching
3
Legal Practice
3
Social Service
4
Journalist
2
Student
2
Physician
2
Local Government Representative of them 17.2 % involved with 25
fishing
Government Employee
33
Total
126
%
31.75
9.52
2.38
2.38
3.17
1.59
1.59
1.59
19.84
26.19
100.00
Table 3 Weekly Intake of an Adult living in the study area
Food Type
Weight (g) kcal/g
Egg
Rice
Fish
Wheat
Vegetables
Lintel
Meat
Milk
Total
60
5200
120
700
840
700
50
37
1.48
1.29
1.09
3.39
0.45
3.53
1.25
0.66
kcal/week
88.8
6708
130.8
2373
378
2471
62.5
24.42
12236.52
kcal/day
12.69
958.29
18.69
339.00
54.00
353.00
8.93
3.48
1748.07
Table 4 Global food consumption kcal/capita/day (source: FAO 2002, Joachim von Braun
(2007), Joachim von Braun (2009), Akramov et al., 2010)
World
Industrial countries
Developing Countries
South Asia
Bangladesh
Study Area (Coastal
Area)
1965
2358
2947
2054
2017
1935
-
1975
2435
3065
2152
1986
1948
-
1985
2655
3206
2450
2205
2191
-
2013
2803
3380
2681
2403
2215
1748
Fig. 1 Food availability in coastal vs. landlocked countries
2013 Global Food Security Index (GFSI) Availability Score 0-100, where 100 = best
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
Fig. 2: Map showing the Satkhira district (Source: LGED)
44%
47%
Flood
Cyclone
Storm surge
9%
Fig. 3 Incidence or prevalence of different types of natural disasters in the study area
(Source: Shams and Takashi, 2013)
Fig. 4 Income range of the people in the study area (78 Tk = 1 USD; Source: After Shams
and Takashi, 2013)
Respondents %
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Food Deficit:
Respondents %
Fig. 5 Percentage of Households having food deficit during various months of the year
(Source: Household Survey)
Fig. 6 Alternative source of employment (source: Household Survey)