, Columnist
Feed the World? India Has a Chapati Crisis Brewing at Home
People don’t eat wheat. They buy flour to make their daily bread. But a heat wave has stunted grain formation.
Wheat exports versus the economics of daily bread.
Photographer: LAURENE BECQUART/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
The only thing India can possibly do during this year’s global food crisis is to not make it any worse for its own poor. As the cost of basic nutrition balloons everywhere, the second-most-populous nation’s best bet is to fall back on its extensive system of state procurement and public distribution to soften the blow.
But, around mid-April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised U.S. President Joe Biden that India could feed the world. If the World Trade Organization allowed it, “India is ready to supply food stocks to the world from tomorrow,” Modi said, recalling the conversation.