Published:
July 19, 2022 8:57:12 PM
To aid UN efforts to bring food grains of Ukrainian and Russian origin to the world market, the US government would have exempted the production, manufacture or sale of agricultural products, including fertilizers, agricultural equipment or the drugs (of Russian origin) of the American sanctions. Details of the U.S. position on agriculture-related products from Russia were released by the country’s embassy in Dhaka on Sunday, citing a Treasury Department fact sheet, it said on Monday. a report from the FE. The report is obviously reassuring in the context that Bangladesh may this time have to import more food grains from the world market due to successive floods and weather hazards that have caused crop losses. But to the chagrin of developing and least-developed countries, including Bangladesh, the global food grain market has become unstable. Although previously the post-pandemic surge in global demand for fossil fuels, food and other essentials was seen as the reason for global commodity market volatility, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24 of this year seems to have made the situation worse.
In recent times, these uncertainties in the food grain market are largely attributed to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The ramifications of the war were also found to be far wider than just disruptions in the supply of wheat or other essential agricultural products from the region in question to the rest of the world. In fact, the war even affected agro-agriculture itself by making inputs such as fertilizers, agricultural tools, medicines, etc. more expensive. With the war showing no signs of abating, poor food-deficit countries are at grave risk of serious food shortages. Worse still, famine and starvation could be on the horizon for some African and Asian countries.
In this context, it is important that the flow of surplus grain and other agriculture-related products and inputs from the war-torn area to those most in need is maintained uninterrupted. From this point of view, the position of the US government, as reported, to free transactions of agricultural products, including humanitarian issues emanating from the Russian Federation with other countries and regions from its restrictive regime, would be to a great help for the suffering humanity. At the same time, one would also expect a surplus country in food production, the United States, to also help tame the unstable world market for food grains and largely come to the aid of countries facing to an acute food shortage.
Bangladesh, in this regard, can duly take advantage of the US exemptions for agriculture-related imports from Russia. Moreover, Bangladesh is likely to benefit doubly from any foodgrain or agricultural agreement with Russia, given that it has enjoyed a very friendly relationship with that country since our independence. As Bangladesh at present faces challenges on many fronts, a pragmatic approach to addressing these issues would go a long way towards ensuring the country’s food and energy security. At this point, it should be borne in mind that the instability of the world food grain market as well as the floods, the current raging heat waves and other adversities caused by climate change will only worsen day by day. Thus, policy makers must make the most of the opportunities created on the international scene and adopt a long-term strategy to solve the country’s food security problem.
