Reducing vulnerability to natural disasters: lessons from the 1998 floods in Bangladesh

The 1998 flood covered two-thirds of Bangladesh at its peak and caused 2.2 million tons of rice crop losses. Yet, in contrast to 1974, no famine or major food crisis occurred. Private market food grain flows and limited, targeted distribution enabled Bangladesh to avoid a food crisis without large-scale food grain distribution supplied from public stocks, the policy in place during earlier production shortfalls in 1984 and 1988. Liberalisation of food grain imports in the early 1990s contributed to food security by making it possible for private traders to import more than 2 million tons of rice following the flood, adding to domestic supply and stabilising prices. Survey evidence indicates that government public food grain distribution was well-targeted to poor and flood-exposed households. Nonetheless, poor households borrowed heavily to maintain consumption, resulting in high levels of debt even 15 months after the flood. (Original abstract)