Bangladesh

An overview from the USAID Bangladesh website.

The U.S. Government's Feed the Future initiative aligns with the Government of Bangladesh’s sixth five-year plan to improve agriculture, food security and nutrition. Food for Peace resources are aligned to increase agricultural productivity, income generation, access to food and improved nutrition and dietary diversity.

Targeting these areas, USAID will address three inter-related obstacles:

Insufficient productivity gains in agriculture, to keep pace with an increasing population;
The inability of the poor to buy food, which indicates increasing incomes are just as important to food security as production;
Lack of diversity in diets dominated by rice, contributing to malnutrition.

USAID’s food security efforts address three constraints in the agriculture and non-agricultural sectors of the economy that contribute to a weak food security system:

Poor governance;
Poor infrastructure; and
Lack of skilled labor, including technical and middle management expertise.

Addressing these areas is essential to combating malnutrition.

Science and technology are central to Feed the Future activities. Innovation will help crops adapt to changing salinity, flooding and drought levels brought on by climate change. New cultivation methods, including deep placement of urea and alternate wet dry technologies in rice will reduce greenhouse gases and water pollution, while saving fossil fuels and increasing farmers’ incomes.