Chandan Sharma*
New Delhi (The Hawk): The issue of the food security has finally become a major global concern as it was apprehended by the experts after the outbreak of the conflict in the Eurasian region. High rate of inflation has started pinching even the rich nations and food crisis is now giving headache to several nations. The G-7 nations’s criticism of India’s banning of export of wheat can be seen in this perspective as the policymakers has now started signaling that the era of the economical and subsidized food has now gone away. If go by the reports, several nations, belongs to G-7 group, are now facing difficulties to fullfil demands of subsidized food for their population at the pre-covid prices. The outbreak of the conflict has aggravated situation as the food supply chains of the global food trade has been badly affected for many countries, dependent upon the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ i.e. Russia and Ukraine. A large number of shipments of foodgrains have either stuck at the ports or facing the heat of sanctions. India, however, self-reliant to a great extent, as far as its own food requirements are concerned, but it still heavily dependent upon the nations like Ukraine for its vegetable oil needs, especially sunflower oil. So, India too has affected in the renewed food crisis, created due to multiple reasons including post pandemic scenario as well as outbreak of conflict and disturbances in food supply chains. Situation is more severe in the countries like Yaman, Egypt, Afghanistan and several other West African nations and Middle East nations, who directly dependent on the supplies of foodgrains from Eurasian regions. High inflation and food crisis have become more rampant in these nations. Sri Lanka, which is facing unprecedented food crisis and violence due to it, cannot be judged separately in this concern.
However, there are several other reasons for it but food crisis and surging energy prices are paramount in this concern. Rising energy prices is certainly giving sleepless nights to both policymakers or lawmakers as well as consumers throughout the globe. According to recent analysis, three nations have been hugely
benefitted due to ongoing energy crisis. These include Saudi Arabia, US and Russia as these are main producers of oil and gas. But this benefit has affected common man’s day-to-day life badly as soaring energy prices has ultimately made the ongoing global food crisis worse as a large number of population ( a rough estimate says
about 20% people) are now unable to feed themselves on daily basis. The report of foodgrain production this year does not provide a rosy picture. In such a situation, keep finger crossed and rely on your food administration system as they hold the key during this tough time of crisis.
*The author has been associated with Delhi University as visiting faculty and writes on various topics.
