ABSTRACT
The year 2007 was indicative of the challenges that Bangladesh faces to achieving food security. Severe flooding from July to September 2007 affected over 13 million people in 46 districts and caused extensive damage to agricultural production and physical assets (e.g. housing, embankments). With hardly any time to recover, on 15 November 2007 Cyclone Sidr made landfall across the southern coast of the country, causing over 3000 deaths. The total economic damages of these two events amounted to over US$1 billion US (World Bank, 2008). Moreover almost 2 million tonnes of rice were lost, putting government cereal stocks in a precarious situation. Finally, that same year the unabated increase in the international prices of oil and food, of which Bangladesh is a net importer, put further strains on both government budgets and household livelihoods.
