In the past year, global food prices have risen by nearly one-third, fertilizer by more than half, and oil prices by almost two-thirds. Meanwhile, most developing countries lack the fiscal space to cushion the blow of these huge increases with many unable to borrow because markets are closed to them. If high fertilizer prices continue, the production of other foods including rice would be impacted, affecting billions of people in Asia and the America.
Around 50 countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for wheat, maize and sunflower oils and a majority of them are poor countries. Because of the supply side disruptions, prices have skyrocketed with the UN’s food and agricultural price index reaching an all-time high of almost 160 points in March. The conflict and international economic sanctions on Russia have further disrupted supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other commodities from both countries, pushing up prices for food and fuel.
Before the conflict started in February, Ukraine was seen as the world’s bread basket, exporting 4.5m tonnes of agricultural produce per month through its ports – 12% of the planet’s wheat, 15% of its corn and half of its sunflower oil. Russia and Ukraine together produce around 30% of the world’s wheat. Russia is also the world’s top exporter of nitrogen fertilisers, the second-leading supplier of potassium fertilisers and the third-largest exporter of phosphorus fertilisers. Together, they control a significant global supply chain of food and fertilisers.
UN secretary general António Guterres has said shortages of grain and fertiliser caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, warming temperatures and pandemic-driven supply problems threaten to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity. ‘Food and Agriculture Organisation’ of the United Nations has revealed that around 193 million people in 53 countries or territories experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels in 2021 and the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support continues to grow at an alarming rate.
Amid the world being battered by the severe food crisis, India has, inspite of various difficulties, produced record amount of rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, gram, rapeseed-mustard and sugarcane. The third advance estimates of the production of major agricultural crops for the year 2021-22 in India is estimated at record 314.51 million tonnes, higher by 3.77 million tonnes than the production of foodgrain during 2020-21. The production during 2021-22 is also higher by 23.80 million tonnes than the previous five years’ (2016-17 to 2020-21) average production of foodgrains. The assessment of the production of different crops is based on the data received from states and validated with information available from other sources.
In last two years, the number of severely food-insecure people in the world has doubled, from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million now. The whole crisis makes it more urgent than ever to tackle the root causes of food crises rather than just responding to the predicament. In the midst of the crisis, it is heartening to note here this record production of so many crops in India, is the result of the farmer-friendly policies and tireless hard work of the farmers, different agencies and the diligence of our scientists.
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