The Effect of COVID-19 (Lockdown) on Food Security in Bangladesh

This term paper, submitted to the Bangladesh University of Professionals, examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns on food security in Bangladesh. It explores disruptions to the food supply chain, including trade restrictions, labor shortages, and the impact on agricultural production. The report highlights the effects of panic buying, rumors, and artificial shortages created by dishonest traders, leading to increased prices and food insecurity. The study analyzes the government's responses and suggests short-term measures like importing essential goods and long-term strategies focusing on supporting local agricultural production and fair market prices. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for government intervention to address market irregularities and promote sustainable food security for all citizens, especially vulnerable groups.

Term paper on
The effect of covid-19 (lockdown) on food security in Bangladesh.
Course name
Disaster in Agriculture and Food Security
Course Code: DHSM-3209
Submitted to
Asikunnaby
Assistant Professor
Department of Disaster and Human Security Management
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
Submitted by
MD. Mehedi Hasan Santo
ID: 19131025
Session: 2018-2019
Department of Disaster and Human Security Management
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Submission Date
27/10/21
Contents Page no.
Introduction 03
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BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF
PROFESSIONALS

Discussion 03-04
Conclusion 05
References 06
Introduction:
Pandemic is a significant part of humankind history and has faced different pandemics, including
Plague of Athens, The Black Death, Spanish Flu, SARS, Cholera, Flu Pandemic, AIDS and
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INDEX

Ebola, etc. Those pandemics have ravaged the environment, economy and humanity extensively.
Humanity is currently going through another widespread infectious pandemic called COVID-19,
which started spreading from China in 2019 and subsequently affected more than 220 countries
and territories, including Bangladesh(Uddin et al., 2020). COVID-19 has triggered not just a
global calamity in terms of human deaths but also affects economic and agricultural activities.
The impact of covid-19 on the food supply chain is a serious issue, especially in developing
countries that face trouble with food security. Food security is a human right that refers to all
human beings, at all times having access to safe, nutritious, quality and sufficient foods. To
ensure food security there needs a proper balance between the supply and demand chain. The
supply and demand chain is being disrupted through various factors such as war, conflict,
disaster, pandemic etc(Erhie, 2020). Recent pandemic coronavirus disrupts the global food
supply chain, causing import-export trade to be impeded (Barman, Das, & De, 2021). The
coronavirus has caused havoc on the global economy(December, 2020). Likewise, Bangladesh,
as a growing economic country, the impact of covid-19 on its economy are enormous. This study
aims to identify the effect of covid-19 on food security in Bangladesh.
Key words: Food supply and demand, Food security, Lockdown, Panic Buying, Rumour,
Artificial Shortage, Government Responses.
Discussion:
Food supply is a system that requires proper maintenance to ensure food security(Siche, 2020)
But Covid-19 disrupts vital food supply systems such as the trade of one region to another
region, one country to another country, rural to the urban area etc. But many countries, including
Bangladesh, imposed lockdown to put down the spread of coronavirus. That negatively affected
human livelihood and economic growth. Bangladesh is dependent mainly on agriculture, where
different forms of agricultural sectors are very important to boost its economic growth. But the
agricultural productions were being disrupted in trade during lockdown due to lack of
transportation facilities. In addition, the employees who are involved in food supply were not
allowed to go their work due to illness or lockdown. So that labour shortage affects trade and
logistics, resulting in a massive food supply shortage(Zabir et al., 2020) .Besides, farmers
suffered a lot with fast-decomposing agricultural products like vegetables, fruits, fish and milk
etc. Marginal and small farmers who produce all these agricultural products are commercially
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forced to sell their products at the local market in nominal prices. The reasons include many
individuals who have lost their job and income sources that reduce individual's spending
capability on goods, as well as lockdown and restriction of free movement, decreases the
abundance of customers in the market. In addition, the price of the products such as vegetables,
fruits and fish was comparatively high in the urban market due to the low supply of products and
fewer customers. Moreover, We observed that many essential goods, including rice, onion, and
edible oil prices, were increased tremendously. Bangladesh mostly imports those goods from
India and China. But during the lockdown, the land border was closed, and many countries like
India stopped their exporting trade to ensure national demand. As importing trade gets low with
India and China as well as the products or goods reached late throughout the country that
influences the supply chain of Bangladesh. So the price of these essential goods was increased as
the supply was comparatively low during the lockdown. Apart from that, there have some
human-induced issues that influence the food supply chain badly. For instance, Panic buying
which is a freaky behavior of human where people tend to buy or store a large amount of daily
essential goods than regular needs during, before or after a catastrophic event. It was noticed that
many people of Bangladesh purchased or tried to store more essential goods at least for 10 to 20
days when the government enforced lockdown, resulting in pressure on the market stock. The
people had the fear that during lockdown price of these goods would increase, or these essential
goods couldn't be found in the market due to lockdown. We can recall the salt issue where a
rumour spread that salt stock would be ended soon so people bought salt five to ten times than
their regular purchase. In addition, some dishonest and lucrative traders create artificial crises in
the market by withholding essential commodities through various syndicates.
Conclusion:
Covid-19 affects the food supply and demand of Bangladesh both directly and indirectly.
Restriction on free movement, lockdown, low import trade, jobless and financial issues, lack of
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transportation and logistics, panic buying, artificial shortage disrupts the food supply and
demand, triggering food insecurity. Through these consequences, supply and demand chains are
being disrupted. The imbalance of food supply and food demand influences food security, where
daily wage earners and middle-class groups who have lost their earning sources and have no
savings suffer a lot in terms of food security. So, the government must address dishonest and
lucrative traders who are illegally creating artificial shortages. In this case, increasing
monitoring in the market, conducting regular mobile court raids, taking strict action against
sellers and traders if irregularities are proved. In addition, the government should focus on
customers consumption limits and discourage not storing more foods than their initial needs so
that the market has a balance between supply and demand. Here, social media can take an
important role to control panic buying and rumours through awareness rising and updating
people about market conditions. Besides, the government may take some short term, and long-
term approaches to ensure food security. In terms of the short term, approach government can
import the essential goods as much as possible to maintain the gap between supply and demand.
On the other hand, the long-term approach refers to where government should focus on national
agricultural production. For that, the government have to facilitate financial and other logistics support for
farmers and keep eyes on market and distribution so that farmers get fair market price of their products.
References:
Barman, A., Das, R., & De, P. K. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 in food supply chain: Disruptions and
recovery strategy. Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 2(November 2020), 100017. Retrieved
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from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2021.100017
December, A. (2020). Mozambique I Addressing the impacts of COVID-19 in food crises. Mozambique I
Addressing the impacts of COVID-19 in food crises (Vol. 2019). Retrieved from 10.4060/ca9123en
Erhie, E. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain industry. PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited.
Retrieved from http://www.pwc.com/ng/covid-19
Siche, R. (2020). What is the impact of COVID-19 disease on agriculture? Scientia Agropecuaria, 11(1),
3–9. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17268/sci.agropecu.2020.01.00
Uddin, M. B., Hasan, M., Harun-Al-Rashid, A., Ahsan, M. I., Imran, M. A. S., & Ahmed, S. S. U. (2020).
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): Molecular Evolutionary Analysis, Global Burden and Possible
Threat to Bangladesh. Research Square, 1–15. Retrieved from
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-18985/v1?
utm_source=researcher_app&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=RESR_MRKT_Researcher_in
bound
Zabir, A. Al, Mahmud, A., Islam, M. A., Antor, S. C., Yasmin, F., & Dasgupta, A. (2020). COVID-19
and Food Supply in Bangladesh: A Review. SSRN Electronic Journal, (March). Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3595967
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