Abstract
The literature on food security in Bangladesh is limited, with most existing studies focusing on policy recommendations or economic analyses. Considering this gap, this book adopts a political economy approach to explore the political and economic dimensions of food security in Bangladesh. This study evaluates the role of the state in addressing the challenges of food security and investigates how the government responds to hunger among its population. Food security encompasses a comprehensive examination of social, economic, political and ecological factors that influence various aspects of food availability, accessibility, utilization, vulnerability and quality. To analyse food security at the national level, the author specifically concentrates on two key issues: food availability and accessibility.
The book contributes to three main areas of academic research in this field: First, it provides a systematic and detailed empirical study of the state’s role in promoting food security. Second, it provides a political explanation of the complex issues of food insecurity in Bangladesh by examining the nature of the state, state capacity and institutional effectiveness. The author argues that understanding the politics of food security requires examining the nature of the state, as it is crucial for the food security of nations. The book also examines the politics of policymaking and execution, shedding light on new dimensions of food security. It goes beyond conventional research by not only identifying specific rent-seeking groups but also exploring the politics behind rent-seeking and critically analyses the details of policy failure. Third, the book provides a distinctive framework for analysing food security in Bangladesh by employing the concept of neo- patrimonialism to explore the country’s political system.
The author examines the response of the Bangladesh state to food insecurity among its population and offers a comprehensive analysis of the aspects of statehood, including the strength of institutions, that are often overlooked. While doing so, the study employs the concept of neo-patrimonialism to investigate the political system of Bangladesh (pp. 16–17). Within this framework, the analysis incorporates five key concepts: rent-seeking, public corruption, the ‘partial reform syndrome’, weak state capacity and poor governance (p. 65). A central focus of the book is to elucidate the various obstacles to achieving food security in Bangladesh, encompassing the entire spectrum from policy formulation to the mechanisms of implementation. The author asserts that food security in a nation-state is influenced by national and international politics, with the state playing a central role in developing and implementing policies. In a globalized era, external policies drive food networks, exacerbating the problem. The lack of proactive food security governance poses significant challenges for nation-states in addressing hunger-related issues (pp. 15–16).
The prevalence of widespread hunger in Bangladesh, as the book posits, is not due to resource scarcity but rather the nature of the state itself. It highlights the neo-patrimonial tendencies of the state, which hinder its ability to implement effective development policies, including food security. The state’s lack of administrative capacity, effective institutions and coherent ideology hinders its ability to achieve developmental and economic goals. As a result, the state’s capacity to provide basic services has declined, making it incapable of fulfilling its responsibility. The survival of neo-patrimonial regimes in Bangladesh is based on patronage politics, contradicting good governance principles.
The book explores the challenges faced by the neo-patrimonial state of Bangladesh in ensuring food availability and security. It highlights the state’s inability to effectively promote agriculture and boost domestic production, resulting in a heavy reliance on food imports. It discusses the state’s failure to timely import food grains, its dependence on food aid despite its uncertain availability and examines the shortcomings in promoting food availability (Chapter 5). While doing so, the work unpacks the political economy of budget allocation and the budget-making process in Bangladesh, revealing a decline in the state’s role in promoting agricultural growth. This is due to declining budgetary allocation and inadequate measures to support growth and food availability. As the study suggests, weak state capacity and poor governance are the main reasons for the state’s failure to promote the sector, resulting in a significant reduction in the state’s role in economic management, particularly in the agricultural sector.
One of the key analyses the book has brought forth is to assert the negative impact of patronage politics and a neo-patrimonial regime on agricultural development in Bangladesh. It highlights rent-seeking, public corruption, poor governance and weak state capacity hindering effective initiatives. The author introduces the ‘partial reform syndrome’, where reform initiatives are influenced by interest politics and fall short of their intended goals. This results in agricultural development programmes like fertilizer subsidies failing to support impoverished farmers. The book also argues that the state’s inadequate economic management, weak regulatory systems, partial reforms and inability to develop appropriate policies have left farmers to fend for themselves.
The book emphasizes the significance of international trade and food aid in addressing the food deficit in Bangladesh. However, it identifies four major challenges that hinder the effective importation of food grains. First, uncertainties in the global rice market affect food grain imports. Second, the government’s decision- making process is slow and lacks infrastructure for an early warning system, which is crucial given the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters. The author also points out the state’s failure to provide adequate statistical services for informed decision-making regarding food availability. Third, patronage politics and poor governance lead to ineffective state regulation and monitoring of private sector traders, resulting in an unreliable supply of food grains. Fourth, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is hindered by rent-seeking, public corruption and administrative inefficiency. By highlighting these challenges, the author suggests that international trade alone is not a reliable means of ensuring food availability in Bangladesh’s neo-patrimonial state.
Furthermore, the author highlights the importance of government-generated entitlements in Bangladesh, particularly for vulnerable populations, due to socio-economic conditions and widespread poverty. The Public Food Distribution System (PFDS) has traditionally generated entitlements through various projects and programmes. However, the book identifies three weaknesses: First, it is politically motivated; second, the state lacks inclination to promote food security through the PFDS and third, social safety net programmes are not suitable for promoting food security, especially for the vulnerable poor (Chapter 6). Furthermore, the book argues that the PFDS in Bangladesh has been primarily driven by political motivations, with its historical origins and current practices indicating that it primarily serves to ensure regime survival by using state resources, rather than prioritizing food security. The policy has appeased the urban middle class through various channels, and successive regimes have sought to appease donors by implementing reforms recommended by them. The book also suggests that while governance issues are often seen as the cause of leakage and targeting errors, these errors are actually mechanisms for distributing opportunities among different actors to ensure regime survival.
The author explores the impact of sudden price hikes on entitlement generation in Bangladesh (Chapter 4, pp. 94–99) and the need for state mechanisms and market regulation to achieve price stabilization. The author argues that market regulation in Bangladesh is primarily driven by political agendas, with the government feigning serious monitoring to stabilize prices for affordable food for the middle and lower-middle classes. However, these initiatives are primarily aimed at maximizing political gain rather than rectifying market failures, failing to address the underlying causes and enhancing economic efficiency. The book identifies two main types of political initiatives: First, coercion through military, paramilitary, police and other law enforcement agencies. Second, public intervention in the market through the PFDS. By analysing the food crisis of 2007–2008, this book highlights the government’s failure to effectively implement this strategy. The reasons behind the failure of public intervention in food grain markets, as the book argues, include weak state capacity, poor governance, rent-seeking behaviour and public corruption. The book argues that the state fails to provide necessary institutional and infrastructural support for markets and allows illegal activities that undermine the overall market mechanism, a consequence of the patronage politics of a neo-patrimonial government.
The book has a few notable limitations. First, although the author justifies the choice of restricting this study up until 2010, the work being a reworked version of the PhD thesis from 2012, as a reader, one finds it a bit outdated in the current year of 2023. Second, the references and bibliography are not up to date either, with hardly a couple of references beyond 2012. The author should have done a better job in making sure that some of the major works in the last decade, such as the anthology by Umma Habiba et al. (2015), were incorporated and engaged with, while re-writing the monograph. Third, to provide a detailed analysis of food security, the book focuses mainly on two aspects: food availability and food accessibility. While doing so, the book neglects three crucial elements related to food security: utilization, vulnerability and the quality of food in terms of safety and nutrition. Consequently, despite its claim to be a comprehensive examination of food security in Bangladesh, the book falls short in this regard.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the book effectively exposes the structural weaknesses of the state’s institutional capacity in promoting food security. In doing so, it argues that the underlying cause of food insecurity is deeply rooted in the nature of the Bangladesh state itself as well as the political institutions that connect the state and society. The book undoubtedly offers valuable insights for understanding the broader literature on food security and specifically sheds light on the food security situation in Bangladesh.