WTO and India- Food security

WTO and India- Food security

Context:

India will push the WTO to allow foodgrain exports from public stocks on a government-to-government (G2G) basis to meet global shortages at the Ministerial Conference (MC12)

Existing mechanism:

• WTO restricts exports of food, which is procured by governments at support prices. This rule is limiting wheat exports from India, as the Indian government procures wheat at a minimum support price (MSP) from farmers.
• WTO is mainly focused on procurement by the World Food Programme (WFP).

Issue of Food security:

• The food market is also extremely fragile, with just six food baskets supplying the major chunk of the world’s staple food.
• The poor countries are net importers and the high income countries net exporters, irrespective of their food production potential.
• The Black Sea region, which includes Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, is one of the world’s six food baskets. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter while Ukraine is sixth on the list.
• The Ukraine war has hit the global supplies of food items endangering global food security. The war has led to a “three-dimensional” crisis — rising food prices, rising energy prices and tightening finance.

• Countries have already resorted to hoarding staple foods that till recently they exported for profits. Hence, in the immediate future, the overall global availability of foodgrains will be further reduced.
• This is the third global food crisis (after the crises of 2007-08 and 2010-11) in the past 15 years, but the worst-ever in severity and spread.

https://optimizeias.com/wto-agreement-on-agriculture-and-the-peace-clause/