Roughly 25.5% households in Bangladesh borrow money to buy essential food items as their income is insufficient enough to intake their daily meals, according to official data.
To cover basic food shortages, the amount of taking loans is higher in rural areas at 27.8%, followed by urban and city corporation areas at 23.6% and 15.3% respectively.
The latest BBS report styled "Food Security Statistics 2023" revealed that the monthly household national average food cost was Tk12,053.
The expenditure in city corporation areas is higher at Tk14,125, followed by in urban areas at Tk11,890 and in rural areas at Tk11,718, the study findings showed.
Of the expenditure, households spend the highest in daily rice purchase.
In each rural household, the average monthly expenditure for rice is Tk2,822 and for fish is Tk1,637.
In city corporation areas, the spending on rice is Tk2,221 and it is Tk2,540 per month in urban areas.
Monthly food expenditure was the highest at 22.36% for the consumption of rice.
The second-highest cost is 14.05% for buying fish/crab-type food items, while the third-highest 7.40% go for the intake of fruits.
The BBS survey shows as 25.5% of the total households borrow for the intake of their daily meals, most of them go to non-profit organizations (NGOs).
When it comes to loan sources, the majority of the households (68.2%) take loans from NGOs.
On the other hand, 14.4% come from lenders, 10.9% from relatives, 3.50% from banks and 30% from other sources.
As nonprofits are the main source of borrowing for food purchase, some 69.5% rural households go to NGOs while that of 65.7% in urban areas.
Again, 61.1% households in city corporation areas go for NGOs' assistance.
Meanwhile, some 21.92% of the households in the country are facing moderate-to-severe food insecurity, while 0.82% are severely food insecure, according to the BBS survey.
Since 21.92% households experienced moderate-to-severe food insecurity in 2023 and some 0.87% of them are facing severe food insecurity, it implies a high probability of reduced food intake.
It can lead to severe forms of malnutrition, observed the BBS report.
The survey was conducted among 29,760 households across the country in June 2023.