In cooperation with the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC, Copenhagen Consensus Center organized roundtable discussions with an aim to figure out smarter solutions to the most problematic issues facing Bangladesh.

1. Food Security,
Nutrition and
Agriculture
Research Ideas
Dhaka
May 28, 2015

2. Bangladesh Priorities
WORKING WITH 30-50 economists including Nobel Laureates, 100+
sector experts engaging major development organizations, NGOs,
government, businesses, youths, rural and urban Bangladeshis to
identify, analyze and prioritize interventions that will deliver greater
benefit per taka spent, helping move Bangladesh towards Vision 2021
and a more prosperous long term future.

3. In cooperation with the Research
and Evaluation Division of BRAC,
Copenhagen Consensus Center
organized roundtable discussions
with an aim to figure out smarter
solutions to the most problematic
issues facing Bangladesh.
These roundtables are
one of several sources
for research ideas.
Sourcing ideas and solutions
Smarter solutions for Bangladesh
Complete set of papers
on 30-50 solutions
PRIORITIZATION
Government NGOs
Academia Pvt sector
Think tanks
Development
organizations
Eminent Panel
Assessment
Government and
donor seminars
Rural polls
Newspaper polls
among readers
Youth forums
across the country
Private sector
meetings
Social, economic and
environmental benefit-cost
research by top Bangladeshi,
and international economists
Extensive peer review by sector
experts and academics
100+ ideas on
policies & investments
20162015 Continuous
engagement with
the public via
electronic, print
and social media
Working with
civil society,
government and
sector experts
Widely
advocating
results of
prioritization
exercises
OUTREACH

4. Research Ideas

5. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(1 of 19)
• School nutrition programs, milk or hot cook meal, at
pre-primary and primary school levels.
• Biofortification of food e.g. Orange Fleshed Sweet
Potato (OFSP).
• Package of micronutrients and deworming for 0-2 year
olds.
• Expand agricultural research and development
investment to 4% of GDP.
• Separate government agricultural extension workers for
promoting women sensitive agriculture.
• Behavior Change Communication (BCC) in combination
with stipends for increased dietary diversity (DD).

6. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(2 of 19)
• Educating mothers and adolescent girls on nutrition.
• Nourishment program for first 3,000 days of birth
(1,000 days before marriage).
• 1,000 days early childhood development (ECD) program
for children in slums.
• Addressing geriatric nutrition and health issues.
• Reducing system loss in agricultural production and
distribution.
• Awareness about cultural food habits’ and the impact
on nutrition.
• Food and cash transfer program along with nutrition
BCC.

7. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(3 of 19)
• A targeted nutrition program similar to BRAC’s
Targeting Ultra-poor Program (TUP).
• Linking WASH components with nutrition initiatives
and projects.
• Nutrition program for adolescent boys.
• Use of fortified rice in social safety net programs
(SSNPs).
• Ensuring adequate nutrition intake in stipend
programs.
• Reduce market price fluctuations of agricultural
products.
• Small scale poultry rearing for increased meat and egg
consumption by children and mothers.

8. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(4 of 19)
• Embedding good practices arising via pilot projects
through proper BCC initiatives.
• Scale up CARE Bangladesh’s EKATA model, a key driver
of CARE's SHOUHARDO project.
• Nutrition programs for 5-12 year old children.
• Universal/mobile blood test access to detect
undernourishment (e.g. through Union Digital Centers).
• Public food grain stock equal to three months of
emergency requirement along with relief system to
distribute food, clean water, medicine and other
essentials.

9. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(5 of 19)
• Expansion of agro-processing activities through
selection of appropriate technology, compliance with
quality standards, training and skill development, and
access to finance.
• Programs for micronutrient supplementation and food
fortification.
• Raise awareness on child marriage/early pregnancy and
childbearing, and their intergenerational malnutrition
implications.
• Antenatal and postnatal care (ANC/PNC) services
influence nutrition awareness.

10. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(6 of 19)
• Prioritize the following groups with a focus on the
poorest: (i) children under 5; (ii) Pregnant women; (iii)
Lactating women; (iv) Married adolescents; (v) Other
adolescents; and, (vi) Women caretaker of the family or
women headed families.
• Scale up National Nutrition Services (NNS)
interventions.
• Subsequent follow up of Infant and Young Child
Feeding (IYCF) practices and counseling to take place at
Community Clinics (CCs) and Expanded Program on
Immunization (EPI) outreach centers, where a
community based trained volunteer will counsel
mothers for breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

11. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(7 of 19)
• During periods of emergencies and natural disasters,
prioritize supporting breastfeeding women.
• Encourage exclusive breastfeeding for first 12 months.
• Development and implementation of nutrition oriented
programs in urban slums.
• Food transfer and assistance program to reduce
malnutrition.
• Crop insurance for farmers.
• Incorporate nutrition and hygiene education in
curriculum, including school vegetable garden and
cooking demonstrations.

12. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(8 of 19)
• Ensure regular Health and Nutrition Days in the schools
calendar.
• Prioritize supply of water to women for agriculture and
fishing.
• Incorporate basic nutrition into agriculture extension
training and tasks.
• Strengthen nutrition surveillance systems.
• Iron-folic acid supplementation among pregnant,
lactating women and adolescent girls.
• Implement the national strategy for infant and young
child feeding.

13. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(9 of 19)
• Continue existing half-yearly Vitamin A capsules
distribution for children and to postpartum women
within 6 weeks of delivery.
• Media campaign on obesity and underweight.
• Maternal health vouchers and allowance to cover
women’s/girls’ nutritional deficiencies particularly in
the calamity/poverty prone areas.
• Promotion and expansion of homestead gardening and
poultry in rural, remote areas.
• Prioritize inclusion of poor households with children in
food transfer programs.

14. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(10 of 19)
• Reducing male-female agriculture wage gap.
• Open water fisheries management.
• Promote multiple land use technology.
• Continue the Department of Agricultural Extension
(DAE)’s ‘alternate wet and dry’ method for irrigation in
paddy fields.
• IDCOL’s solar based irrigation systems to off-grid
areas, reduce dependency on fossil fuel.
• Expand network of integrated pest management with
environmental awareness, education and BCC to reduce
the impact of agrochemicals.

15. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(11 of 19)
• Continue with the Health, Population and Nutrition
Sector Development Program (HPNSDP).
• Public-private partnerships (PPP) to diversify service
provisions for hard to reach areas.
• Address agricultural yield gap through ICT based
knowledge management platforms.
• Diffusion and dissemination of best practices and
technology in agriculture through ICT.
• Monitoring commitment by Bangladesh as a signatory
to the ICN-2 commitment.

16. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(12 of 19)
• Strengthen market monitoring to curb adulteration and
ensure regulatory compliance.
• Strengthen monitoring of salt iodization by BSTI.
• Scale up Micro-nutrient Promotion (MNP).
• Ensure current mandatory home visit by the
government health worker within 24 hours of child’s
birth.
• Transform semi-subsistence farming to agriculture
commercialization.
• Use of super efficient and more accurate electronic
equipment, Geographic Information System (GIS), site
specific nutrient management based on soil test for
macro and micro-nutrient.

17. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(13 of 19)
• Using Remote Sensing tools (for which expertise exists
with CEGIS) for accurately estimating agricultural
production and crop damages - under the 7th and
subsequent Five Year Plans.
• Development of HYV having with a minimum 10% yield
advantage over existing mega varieties, like BRRI
Dhan29.
• Use of Crop Zoning and Land Use Planning to optimize
land use and land conservation
• Ensure timely supply of fertilizers.
• Support production and use of bio-fertilizers to
maintain soil fertility.

18. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(14 of 19)
• Promotion of Precision Agriculture for optimization of
inputs use.
• Shifting from cereal-cereal cropping to cereal and non-
cereal based high value cropping patterns- sugar beet
production and processing it as sugar crop.
• Continue lower interest rate for agricultural credit
especially for pulse, oilseed and spice crops.
• Transfer of technologies through appropriate extension
services.
• Strengthen Research –extension - farmer linkages for
immediate introduction at farm level of new developed
paddy varieties like short duration and zinc enriched
paddy.

19. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(15 of 19)
• Strengthening MIS (ICT) based knowledge management
system and e-agriculture.
• Establishment of more Farmer’s Information and
Advisory Centre (FIAC) at union level.
• Providing price support and input subsidy to farmers.
• Recruit more women agricultural workers.
• Strengthening research and establishment of Research-
Extensions linkage for introduction of new profitable
cropping patterns in the newly accreted coastal land
and marine islands.

20. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(16 of 19)
• Undertake initiatives to cultivate crops like - Khesari,
Mugbean, Water melon, Vegetables, Cowpea, Sesame,
Sunflower, Groundnut, Sweet gourd, Chilli, Sweet
Potato, Barley, Soybean, Sorghum, Chewing varieties of
Sugarcane, Sugar bit etc. - in the coastal area and
marine islands.
• Promote production of mixed fruit (saline tolerant fruit
trees) orchards with intercropping and coconut and
betel nut cultivation.
• Update and extend the Department of Livestock Services
(DLS) front line extension services.
• More breeding of the “black Bengal goat”.
• More hygienic slaughter system.

21. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(17 of 19)
• Implement special projects for buffalo and sheep
farming.
• Ensure supply of quality day-old chicks, quality control
of poultry feeds and feed ingredients.
• Accelerate development of private and community-
based veterinary services, including compliant private
veterinary diagnostic center, clinics and hospitals.
• Establishment of an autonomous Quality Control
Agency to ensure quality of veterinary drugs, vaccines,
feeds, feed ingredients and breeding tools and
materials.
• Increase private sector participation for long term
fodder development.

22. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(18 of 19)
• Define shrimp farming zones in the coastal region
based on natural advantages of shrimp and prawn
farming.
• Promote different methods of aquaculture and farming
system based on different zones’ suitability - such as
shrimp with salt limited to south eastern Cox’s Bazar
district, improved traditional golda farming in areas
like Bagerhat, etc.
• Undertake a rapid assessment of fisheries stocks by
species in recently resolved South-West waters of EEZ
(19,467sq.km).
• Collaborative effort for distant water fishing (beyond
200m of EEZ and ABNJ) to explore and exploit tuna and
large pelagic fishes.

23. Food Security, Nutrition and Agriculture;
(19 of 19)
• Breed development and increase in milk production
through Cooperatives, thereby reducing dependency on
imported milk.

24. Full List of Attendees and
Interviewees
Ms. Lalita Bhattacharjee, FAO.
Meredith de Graffenried, Country Director, HKI.
Dr. Shahed Rahman, National Nutrition Coordinator,
CARE Bangladesh.
Dr. Raisul Haque, Program Head, Health, Nutrition
and Population Program, BRAC.
Dr. M. Sirajul Islam, Program Head, BRAC.
Monira Parveen, Senior Program officer, Nutrition,
WFP.
Dr. S.M. Mustafizur Rahman, Country Director,
Micronutrient Initiative (MI).
Dr. Mhd. Abdul Malek, Senior Research Fellow, RED
BRAC.
Barnali Chakroborty, Senior Research Fellow, RED
BRAC.
Sabuj Kanti Mistry, Senior Research Associate, RED
BRAC.
Fahmida Aktar, Staff-Researcher, RED BRAC.
Dr. Debashish Chanda, Project Manager, Global
Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).
Dr. Mahfuzar Rahman, Program Head, RED BRAC.
Anita Sharif, Research Fellow, RED BRAC.
Moniruzzaman Bipul, Deputy Project Manager, GAIN.
Erin Nickerson, Economist, USAID.
Dr. Sultana Khanum, Focal Person, Global SUN CSO
Network.