Food and nutrition security trends and challenges in the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) delta

Abstract

The population of the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) delta is highly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition due to the specific environmental, climatic and human development factors affecting agricultural production and fisheries. To better understand the impacts of climate and environmental change on food security and nutrition in this delta, this study combines spatially explicit data from the 2007 and 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) with a standard satellite remotely sensed vegetation greenness index (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI), used as a proxy for rice production. The strength of association between NDVI and child nutrition in this tropical mega-delta were tested, showing correlations between two widely used indicators of child malnutrition; stunting and wasting, and deviations from a 10 year mean NDVI (anomalies) for rice crop growing seasons – regarded as critical to individual children’s early lives. For children surveyed in 2007 we found that the likelihood of being stunted decreased with increased NDVI as a measure of food production. Similarly, for children surveyed in 2011, the likelihood of being wasted reduced with increased NDVI. However, regression results for stunting in 2011 and wasting in 2007 were not statistically significant. Our findings suggest that NDVI can be regarded as indicative of climatic variability and periods of low food production but is only partly successful as an indicator of climate related impacts on child nutrition in the GBM delta. Furthermore, our study highlights some of the uncertainties and challenges with linking environmental indicators such as the NDVI with household survey data across spatial and temporal scales.

Nutritional value, micronutrient and antioxidant capacity of some green leafy vegetables commonly used by southern coastal people of Bangladesh

“…Bangladesh ranked the most vulnerable country for potential negative impact on agricultural production and food security challenges because of climate changes, accelerated sea level rise associated with flood, cyclone and coastal strom [9]. In coastal belt especially in Khulna, one of the main food security challenges is soil salinity (due to salt intrusion) and lack of farming land due to shrimp farming [10].…”

Microbial Prevalence in Soil Water in the River Deltas of the World

“…As the delta is maximally composed of alluvial soil of the flooded plain made up of river deposition and siltation, the organic constituents along with different microbes including bacteria, fungi, parasites, helminthes, virus play an important role for the cultivation of different vegetations in the soil [89]. The maximal humid situation of upstream in comparison to the downstream provides variations in the fungi pollens that also changes the physio-chemical soil texture for a long time period [90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106]. Sundarban river delta is also an example of this largest deltoid soil microbial activity [104,[107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121].…”

“…The microbial population also changes the salinity and other water organic composition that effects the further biotic and abiotic processes [98]. Some study identifies about marine anti-cancerous alkaloids that are extracted from some aquatic fungi, cyanobacteria, sponges, algae and tunicates [176][177].…”

Beyond the risks to food availability – linking climatic hazard vulnerability with the food access of delta-dwelling households

“…This deficiency has also been noticed by many authors (e.g. Esham et al 2018;Keller et al 2018;van Soesbergen et al 2017). Such shortcomings are counterintuitive, since the term "food security", according to its commonly accepted definition, refers primarily to food access (FAO 1996).…”