A person living in Bangladesh has to spend Tk276 for buying healthy foods daily and 73% of the population does not have the ability to do so.
This information was disclosed in "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022" published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Unicef, World Food Program and World Health Organisation.
In 2017 about 77.4% population of Bangladesh could not afford a healthy diet which has been reduced to 73% in 2022.
According to the report, Nepal has the least capacity to buy healthy food among the countries of South Asia. Then comes Pakistan.
India is doing slightly better than Bangladesh while Sri Lanka and Bhutan have the highest capacity of buying healthy food compared to other countries of this region.
On average, 41.1% people of South Asia are unable to afford healthy food.
The challenges to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition keep growing, reads the report.
The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the fragilities in our agrifood systems and the inequalities in our societies, driving further increases in world hunger and severe food insecurity.
The report says that, despite global progress, trends in child undernutrition – including stunting and wasting, deficiencies in essential micronutrients and overweight and obesity in children, continue to be of great concern.
