India comes forward to support nations amidst global food crisis
You must be aware of the growing hunger crisis that has taken over the globe. Statistics suggest that about 345 million people are affected by this food shortage worldwide. In fact, this number only keeps rising, thanks to war-induced inflation, severe climate change and a worldwide pandemic. Keeping these in mind, recently, PepsiCo Foundation had stepped up and taken proactive measures in order to tackle the growing global food insecurity.
Looks like, India too has joined hands in this mission and has exported as much as 1.8 million tonnes (almost four times to that of 2021) of wheat to several countries, that are currently suffering from food crisis. Here’s everything you need to know about India’s recent initiative.
Where all has India sent food?
The Indian government had banned overseas sales of food staple on 13th May. Since then, more than a dozen countries (that are directly or indirectly dependent on food supply from India) have immensely suffered due to acute food shortage. But recently, our country decided to lift the ban to help out such nations and has even sent out large quantities of wheat. According to several media sources, many nations had requested Indian wheat shipments to feed their domestic population and have a hold on the growing hunger crisis.
Sources also cite that India has exported wheat to nations such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bhutan, Israel, Nepal, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Vietnam, Yemen, Thailand, Switzerland, Qatar, South Korea, Oman, Afghanistan and UAE among others. However, all the governments have pledged to use Indian wheat only for their own consumption and not for trade. This comes right after Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement last month saying that India is ready to supply to “friendly countries facing a food crisis,” even though it is not a major wheat exporter.
You would also find it interesting to note that the Indian government has also signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme to supply 10000 additional tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan, apart from the already committed 50000 tonnes. This decision was taken keeping in mind that nearly 19 million people in Afghanistan (that’s half the country’s entire population!) are currently affected by the ongoing food shortage.
Why had India banned overseas sales of staple?
In May, India had put a ban on private sales of food staple to foreign countries. Okay, but what prompted this step? Well, it turns out that when summer came earlier than usual this year, the scorching heat had greatly impacted growth of food crops and production was thus hampered up to 5 per cent. Moreover, a high-protein variety of wheat called ‘durum’ was also ‘prohibited,’ which earlier used to be ‘free.’
While India’s ban on overseas sales of staple had been largely condemned by the G7 countries, the Indian government had justified the step as a precautionary measure to ensure the country’s own food security and to control the rise in domestic prices of food staple, such as wheat. One can even say that such a step was also a way forward to provide humanitarian assistance to only vulnerable, food-deficit countries.
Interestingly, amidst such a situation too, India had declared that if any country put a formal request for wheat shipments, it would definitely lend a hand of support. Well, these recent developments proved that India did live up to its promise.