ABSTRACT
This chapter draws the conceptual framework of two important keywords: food security and the state. It critically examines the notion of food security which is then followed by the key approaches that deal with the food security in Bangladesh. The chapter then critically examines the degree of state intervention in promoting growth and development, and the nature of the Bangladesh state. The concept of food security involves rigorous examinations of a variety of social, economic, political and ecological factors to identify the choices and challenges that determine various aspects of food availability, accessibility, utilization, vulnerability and quality. In the ‘centralized’ state of Bangladesh, neither the judicial system nor the institutions of democracy are responsive to the needs of the ‘excluded’. The excluded of Bangladesh remain tyrannized by the state as well as by money power and have to seek the protection of their oppressors within a system of patron-client relationships, which perpetuates the prevailing hierarchies of power.
