Stunting, poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF), maternal undernutrition and anemia among children are serious public health problems in Bangladesh, experts said Tuesday.

Stunting is related to impaired intellectual development of children under five due to malnutrition.

Preliminary results of a baseline survey in 6500 households (HH) in rural areas shows per capita intake of zinc prevails among more than 50 per cent of children while per capita iron intake is much less than Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), particularly among pregnant women, leading to anemia.

More than 75 per cent of children upto two years of age seriously suffer from anemia.

These were disclosed at a seminar on 'Nutrition Research in Bangladesh: IFPRI Role' held at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.

The International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI) organised the seminar, funded by the USAID and hosted by the BRAC at its auditorium here.

Key nutrition stakeholders both from home and abroad including researchers and academics joined together at the seminar to promote collaboration and identify research potential gaps.

The main objective of the seminar was to provide a broad overview of the nutrition research portfolio that IFPRI and its key partners are managing in Bangladesh and promote collaboration, discuss complementarities and overlap, and identify potential research gaps that could be filled up by new projects.

Akhter Ahmed, Chief of Party of Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Programme (PRSSP), welcomed the guests while Marie Ruel, Division Director of Poverty, Health and Nutrition of IFPRI, gave an overview of programmes covered under IFPRI's nutrition research partnerships in Bangladesh.