ISAS Insights

The food security of low-income groups of people in Bangladesh has been affected by a spate of natural disasters in 2017. At the same time, neighbouring India has had a bumper production of food grains and a consequential plunge in prices and distress among farmers. The two countries, which have been unable to agree on the sharing of the waters of the cross-border Teesta River, could perhaps now explore rice diplomacy as a confidence-building measure, with India giving Bangladesh food grains as a mixture of humanitarian aid and export at price that the latter can afford.