–Syed Hamza Abdullah

With floods sweeping the nation and the people still recovering from a large-scale protest, it is safe to anticipate an economic collapse. Any economy is ultimately blessed or cursed by human emotions. It is, after all, made up of human beings working together in a society. Greed is one such human emotion that plagues every economy, the Bangladeshi economy no less.

Farida Akhtar, Fisheries and Livestock Adviser in the current interim government of the country, knows this well. In the coming days, her ministry will play a major role in healing the economy. Here are 4 challenges she must tackle to fight off a food crisis. 

1. Eradicating Syndicates

Akhtar was right in pointing out on her first day in office that one of the primary drivers behind high agricultural commodity prices is the various syndicates that come in the way of farmers and wholesalers. Artificially jacking up the prices has been a notorious phenomenon in the agricultural market as a whole, fish and livestock being no exception.

The food crisis is intertwined with the moral crisis of these syndicates, and it is of paramount importance to apply the full force of the law in rooting out these corrupt entities from the food chain, ensuring a free market and sufficient food at an affordable price for the country.

2. Prioritising Food Safety

But prices aren’t the only variable contributing to the food crisis. Even affordable food can be bad. No cheap food is worth sacrificing one’s health for. The Fisheries and Livestock Adviser was not oblivious to this. Under her ministry, as per her statement on her first day as Adviser, food packed with nutrition and safe from any preservatives or adulterants will top the priority list.

Research conducted by the Bangladesh Food and Safety Authority (BFSA) in 2019 discovered that more than half of the food samples they took at the time were contaminated by adulterants. It is crucial at this time of rebuilding a new Bangladesh to address this once and for all, which the ministry will hopefully do.

Ensuring that Bangladeshis can eat is one goal, and completing the sentence by adding that they can eat “safely”, is the second goal. The two goals are inseparable, both being stated goals of the new Fisheries and Livestock ministry.

3. Empowering Women In The Food Sector 

With a woman at the head of the Fisheries and Livestock ministry, it is only natural to turn our attention to the employment of fisherwomen and women in the fishery sector as a whole. 

As Eun Joo Allison Yi has said in an article on the World Bank Blogs, although approximately twenty percent of the global fish and aquaculture output is from Bangladesh, less than 1.5 million Bangladeshi women had jobs in fisheries out of the almost 18 million jobs that formed the sector in 2022.

That is only roughly 8.4% of the total jobs in this vital sector that provides livelihoods for the millions employed in it and sustains life for the millions that derive their food and nutrition from it. Considering that it is estimated that there are still about 850,000 unemployed women in the country, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), this untapped potential must be utilized by Farida Akhtar’s ministry. 

It will drive up productivity and output in fisheries, thus essential to tackling the shortage of affordable food in Bangladesh. It is commendable that her promise of commitment to employing more women in this sector made it to her first speech as Fisheries and Livestock Adviser.

4. Balancing Local Demand and International Trade

At the heart of the fishery crisis is the export of Hilshas, which has previously led to the skyrocketing of Hilsha prices in local markets. Hilsha is exported to India every year before Durga Puja, with 4,000 tonnes being exported in 2023, and three-fourths of the world’s Hilsha comes from Bangladesh.

It is no surprise that Hilsha prices have become unsustainable for the common people in this country. Hilsha being a staple and household favorite in Bangladesh, the prices of Hilsa are significantly culpable for the ongoing food crisis. 

Farida Akhtar’s vow to ensure that Hilsha is available for people at home to buy before releasing it abroad for export is a step in the right direction to reform the fishery sector.

Many challenges lay ahead for the new interim Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. Women’s employment, prohibiting adulterants, holding corrupt syndicates to account, and prioritizing the local population when it comes to Hilsha, are milestones that hold much hope for the future. Challenges ranging from the pollution of waterbodies to a scarcity of knowledge on maintaining high-breed cattle etc. still loom large, but only time will tell how effective her ministry will be.