GLOBAL FOOD AND OIL CRISES AND PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSE: A MACRO LEVEL ANALYSIS ON BANGLADESH

The government faced the challenge of the global food and oil price hike and at the same time has to extend the safety nets to save the poor from hunger and malnutrition. To increase the food production, the government allocated a large portion of budget for the subsidization of agriculture. The allocation in FY 2008-09 was the highest (BDT 5789 crore). To assure a fair disbursement of the subsidy and to make it more cost effective, government is going to introduce ‘Agricultural input Assistance Card’. To keep the price of rice stable, government operated Open Market Sale form August 20 to October 31 and provided about 300,000 tons of food grain to the poor. The government distributed ration card to the poor house hold.  To keep pace with the world price the government go for ad hoc adjustment of the price of oil and at the same time provided fuel to the farmers at a subsidized rate.