Taking Control of the National Food

It is now time that the government take over full control of the food supply chain management of the country to stop contamination and pollution, inflation due to syndication, and improper distribution through unsecured channels. As a preparation to tackle coming food shortage and crisis, the government must take the matter seriously as a top priority while there is still time.

Dependence on private sector to manage food supply in the country has proven to be risky and futile. Now we are eating poisonous food – raw or cooked. The fruits and vegetables that are available in the open market are contaminated with poisonous pesticides; the fish that we buy from the market are mixed with formalin, pretty much every kind of food items are full of poison. Yet we are purchasing these poisonous foods with higher prices!

Inflation is another area of our national trouble. The reckless price hike of the basic food items is totally out of control. Our economists and the wise bureaucrats have no clue on how to contain the problem. As a result, common people are finding it unmanageable to maintain their normal lifestyle with a fixed and honest income. In order to cope with the inflation more and more people are getting into corruption to have an 'extra' income somehow somewhere.

Unfortunately, our government is just showing off some brief dramas of some crack downs here and there with no meaningful outcome. The matter is continuously getting worse.

Considering the over all situation and condition of the matter, it is now the need of the hour to take full control over the food supply chain management tossing out all the private players. Playing with the items of basic survival should not be tolerated at all. Any deviation through adulteration of food should be severely punished by law.

The government is in a position with their spread out network of administrative bodies to take control of the whole food supply management process starting at the root level up to the reach to the consumer level. This is the only way to eliminate all intentional or unintentional tampering done on our foods.

The government can act as the buying agency at the root level ensuring a fair price to the producers so that they continue to produce quality food items. Then all those purchased goods could be transported to the resellers at a reduced and controlled price with a markup for them to sell. The prices in the markets and bazaars should be checked and controlled by the proper agencies with an option for the consumers to be able to launch complaints to the authority against any seller in the market who would attempt to sell any item for higher profits. All logistics should be strictly controlled by the agency people to ensure that the food is not contaminated or poisoned during the transit from the primary source to the market. During the reign of the Care Taker government we have briefly seen the government taking control of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) with the help of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to handle a crisis. Now they need to improve that mechanism for increased efficiency.

All imports of food items should be handled by the government agencies only (e.g., Trading Corporation of Bangladesh or TCB) to ensure that the best available quality with lowest purchase price is set and sold at a minimum profit (with an intention to recover the administrative and logistic costs as a 'not for profit' manner) to the public. For that enough storage facilities are needed to be developed around the country. All road and highways, train lines, river ways and air ways must be fully operational and functional for easy and flawless transportations within anticipated timeline and regularity. Proper accountability must be in place with action plan and authority to qualified people who are experts in SCM and Total Quality Management (TQM) with proven credibility to mange the job.

Not just the government employees, the entire nation deserves quality food with affordable prices. As per the constitutional mandate, it is the duty of the government to ensure this matter. We find in our constitution –

"15. Provision of basic necessities.

It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to attain, through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people, with a view to securing to its citizens-

(a) the provision of the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care;

(b) the right to work, that is the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable wage having regard to the quantity and quality of work;

(c) the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure; and the right to social security, that is to say to public assistance in cases of undeserved want arising from unemployment ,illness or disablement, or suffered by widows or orphans or in old age, or in other such cases…"

Bangladesh government is far away from achieving their targets as laid down in the constitution. People in this country still lives in hunger, poverty and insecurity. Majority of the citizens here are illiterate. Further we note on point 16 of the constitution,

"16. Rural development and agricultural revolution.

The State shall adopt effective measures to bring about a radical transformation in the rural areas through the promotion of a agricultural revolution, the provision of rural electrification, the development of cottage and other industries, and the improvement of education, communications and public health, in those areas, so as progressively to remove the disparity in the standards of living between the urban and the rules areas…"

In reality, we see most of the development focus are more urban centered and less rural. The government totally ignores the constitutional directives in this regards no matter which political government comes into power. This is never a priority on the government agenda. As a result they totally violate the constitution.

Day by day the whole world is approaching an international turmoil by getting embroiled in wars and conflicts. As such, all nations are becoming restive and facing uncertainties. All this is upsetting regular peaceful lifestyle in many countries, especially in war torn countries. As a result, food production is hampered causing the prices of food to soar as the supply is now being reduced while the demand is constantly increasing. In such a condition, almost all nations in the world today are now witnessing high inflation on basic necessities that concern our survival. Take the present situation for instance, the price of rice, wheat and edible oil have gone up world wide simply because there is a short supply. Shortage of supply will continue to grow as more and more nations get embroiled in war and conflict. Not just that, many people's lives will be shattered bringing enormous loss and sufferings. Therefore, our government must plan ahead to tackle this entire situation before we are gobbled up by surrounding uncontrollable enigmas. Our disaster management committee must get into immediate action.

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Taking Control of the National Food

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