Feeding the world vs farmer suicides: The dichotomy of India’s farming sector
India Today
India is the second-biggest producer of the two staples, with more than 85 million tonnes in stocks, including 21 million tonnes in strategic reserves and the Public Distribution System, which fed about 800 million poverty-stricken people during the pandemic.
When the world’s two food baskets, Russia and Ukraine, are at war, India has pitched in to feed the planet.
“I had a discussion with the US President and I suggested that if the WTO gives permission, India can supply food grains to the world as soon as tomorrow,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Joe Biden in a virtual meeting earlier this month. “We already have enough food for our people, but our farmers seem to have made arrangements to feed the world. But we have to live by the world’s rules, so I don’t know (if the WTO will permit it).”
Later, Sneha Dubey, India’s First Secretary at the United Nations, underscored the country’s contribution to global food security.
India, she told a UN meeting on conflict and hunger, decided to donate 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan when it plunged into a humanitarian crisis. Similarly, Myanmar continues to receive 10,000 tonnes of rice and wheat as part of Indian grants, Dubey noted.
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India is the second-biggest producer of the two staples, with more than 85 million tonnes in stocks, including 21 million tonnes in strategic reserves and the Public Distribution System, which fed about 800 million poverty-stricken people during the pandemic.
India exports wheat and rice at cost-effective prices to the world outside.
