World Bank to Fund $ 202 Million for Bangladesh’s Food Storage Capacity

The World Bank has approved additional funding of $ 202 million for the Modern Food Storage Facility Project to increase the storage capacity of Bangladesh’s National Strategic Grain Reserves.

Storage capacity will be increased by 535,500 tonnes for 4.5 million households.

On Sunday, the World Bank’s board of directors approved funding for the project for Bangladesh, which aims to help the country cope with food insecurity in difficult times – such as frequent climatic disasters – or situations crisis like the current Covid-19 pandemic. the global lender said in a statement.

It is supporting the construction of eight modern public steel grain storage silo complexes for rice and wheat in eight different districts, the World Bank said.

In addition to the ongoing construction works in Ashuganj, Madhupur and Mymensingh, the additional funding will support the construction of rice silos in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Barisal, while wheat silos will be built in Chittagong and Maheshwarpasha, he said. added.

Meanwhile, the funding will increase the grain reserve available to households to meet their post-disaster needs and improve the efficiency of grain storage management through an online food market and stock monitoring system. (FSMMS).

Project benefits

In addition, the project will also create new employment opportunities, especially for women, in the operation and management of silos.

“Almost 80% of the people of Bangladesh live in rural areas where climate shocks threaten their livelihoods, well-being and food security,” said Mohammad Anis, World Bank Acting Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

“This modern food storage system, combined with an efficient distribution system, will help ensure food security after a natural disaster or during a crisis such as the current Covid-19 pandemic.”

The project has already helped manufacture and distribute 500,000 air-tight and water-tight food containers (“domestic silos”) to poor farmers and vulnerable female-headed households in disaster-prone coastal areas. . This success led the government to commit to distributing more silos to 300,000 additional households.

“Currently, public food distribution and grain reserves have a total effective capacity of around 2 million tonnes,” said Christian Berger, World Bank team leader for the project.

“Most of these reserves or slaughterings are in poor condition leading to losses of cereals in quantity and nutritional value. This project helps improve the efficiency of grain storage management, said Christian.

The project will reduce grain storage and handling losses at public storage facilities by at least 50% and extend the nutritional value of grains for up to two years, instead of the current six months.

The credit from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides concessional finance, has a term of 30 years, including a five-year grace period.