IMPACT OF RICE AND WHEAT PRICE CHANGES ON THE POOR IN SOME SELECTED MONGA AFFECTED AREAS OF BANGLADESH: FIELD EVIDENCE FROM GAIBANDHA DISTRICT

The study evaluated the impact of price hike on food consumption of the poor and the performance of safety net programmes in the targeted monga affected areas (monga means season of very low employment in September/October, which led to famine like situation in the past). Primary data were collected from a sample of 90 poor households from four villages selected purposively from Gobindaganj Upazila of Gaibandha district, considering the traditional incidence of monga in the area. The sample households included 30 female headed households, 30 farm labour households and 30 non-farm labour households. Secondary data revealed that daily food consumption of the female headed households, farm labour households and non-farm labour households was reduced by about 334 gm, 540 gm and 480 gm, respectively due to price hike. Average daily per capita consumption of food was reduced by about 88 gm for female headed households, 133 gm for farm labour households and 200 gm for non-farm labour households. The average total food consumption was reduced by about a half kg of food per family per day, while per day per capita average consumption was reduced by about141 gm for all households. The poor households tried to minimize the effect of the monga and price increase through various coping strategies such as borrowing on hard terms, selling labour at minimal wages, harvesting crops early, selling assets for low price, lowering family expenditures than required, eating less food than minimum nutrition requirements and often skipping entire meals. Access to social safety net programmes had positive impact on livelihood of the respondent households during the period of rising food prices. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made for improving food security situation of the monga affected people.