Decisive progress in health standards is held back by the prevailing degree of malnutrition in Bangladesh where poor households are obliged to spend a large proportion of their income on food. In 2005, almost 40% of children under five were underweight. The poorest rural families tend to go hungry in periods between the twice-yearly sewing and harvesting when other work is difficult to find. The World Food Programme is active in the country, aiming to provide food aid to as many as 10 million people in 2009.

Bangladesh is able to grow only about 90% of its needs for rice in a typical year, making the country the world’s 4th largest importer of the grain. 2007 and 2008 have been very untypical years. In 2007 serious floods preceded the devastating Cyclone Sidr and together destroyed more than 5% of the staple rice crop. In 2008 sharp increases in food prices may plunge 4 million people below the poverty line, according to World Bank estimates, despite considerable endeavour by the Bangladesh government to soften the blow.

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