Non-cereal diets must for curbing malnutrition

Experts yesterday suggested diversifying food production and promoting nutrition education to fight malnutrition that affects millions of people in the country.

They said cereals constitute 80 percent of food consumption in Bangladesh, a practice that deprives people of essential nutrients such as protein, minerals and vitamins, mostly coming from fish, meat, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables.

The observations came at a symposium titled "Nutrition sensitive agriculture in Bangladesh", organised by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with support from USAID at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council's (BARC) auditorium in the capital.

Though Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in food production, nutrition still remains a major challenge.

According to a FAO statement, 36 percent of children under five years are either short for their age or stunted, and one third of women are under-nourished with many becoming pregnant while anaemic.

Such malnutrition, especially for children, hampers cognitive development, leading to a shortage of skilled human resources and productivity, mentioned the experts.

While water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial factors for healthy living, food production system, food processing and marketing and food prices influence nutrition, they added.

"Good nutrition begins with good food, that is, food which is safe, sufficient in terms of quality and diversity to provide all the individuals in a family with essential nutrients in appropriate amounts," said Dr Anna Lartey, director of nutrition and food systems division at the FAO headquarters.

In a keynote presentation, Lartey said, "While diversity in food intake is important, food availability and affordability by households are equally important. So, policies on these issues are critical."

 Women empowerment is the other way of better household income, she mentioned, explaining that they (women) make majority of nutrition-related decisions for the family and young children.

"When women control income, it is more frequently used on food and healthcare for family members," added Lartey.

"About 80 percent of agricultural lands are used for rice production in the country…Since rice price is lower than those of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish or eggs, consumption of the non-cereals is much lower," said Dr Abdur Razzaque, former executive chairman of BARC, adding that there should be a balance between the prices of cereals and non-cereals. FAO Representative in Bangladesh Mike Robson suggested promoting nutrition education and good food habits as well as increasing production of milk and eggs--rich sources of protein. Among others, Power and Participation Research Centre Executive Director Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Food Secretary AM Badruddoja, and International Food Policy Research Institute Chief of Party Dr Akhter U Ahmed also spoke.