ABSTRACT
Like most developing countries, Bangladesh too has been affected by the spiralling of food prices 2004 onwards. The all-time high price of food grains, especially that of rice, the staple food of a majority of the population in the country, has put enormous pressure on the purchasing power of the poor who spend a substantial part of their income on food. An erosion of their purchasing power has taken place as there has been no compensating rise in the wage or other income of the people in general. The stake for the common people is high as this erosion has exposed them to a greater risk of hunger and malnutrition. Indeed, this is threatening to undermine the gains in poverty reduction that Bangladesh has achieved from the mid-1990s to 2007. In fact, this may even reverse the trend of poverty reduction unless effective and coherent actions to assist the vulnerable population to cope with the drastic hikes in their food bills are implemented by the government on an urgent footing (Shahbuddin 2008).
