Home ›› 25 May 2022 ›› Opinion
On the 14th of May, the Indian government suddenly declared that their country would not export wheat to the world as the price of wheat increased in the Indian domestic market abruptly. That news immediately created anxiety in the Bangladesh market. It had already been facing troubles due to disruptions in importing wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
Within 24 hours of the Indian ban on wheat export, Maulvibazar, the oldest wholesale market in Dhaka, saw a taka 500 or more than 10 per cent increase, on an average, on the price of a standard bag of flour, weighing 74-killogram. And this is the usual way the Bangladeshi markets react to any hindrance to the supply of major food ingredients from India. Bangladesh's wheat market could have fallen into a worse situation. However, the stakeholders were somewhat reassured when the Indian authorities said that they would export wheat to countries facing food crises if requested by the governments concerned.
The Indian embassy in Dhaka immediately assured Bangladesh that they might continue selling wheat to Bangladesh. The Indian decision to keep Bangladesh, its neighbours, and other crisis-hit countries out of export restrictions also partly aligned with India's prime minister's commitment to global food security. Less than a month before the imposition of the ban, he assured the world that India would continue its wheat supply to offset the deficit in supply from Russia and Ukraine. "When the world is facing a shortage of wheat, Indian farmers have stepped forward to feed the world; whenever humanity is faced with a crisis, India comes up with a solution," Narendra Modi said.
Bangladesh imports around seven million tonnes of wheat every year, mostly from Russia, Ukraine, India, Canada, the USA and Australia. However, being the bordering import destination, India has always been preferred by small and medium-scale Bangladeshi importers and flour millers.
Ukraine and Russia are the major sources for wheat and oil seeds to the global market, so the world started seeing drastic declines in the supply of grains after Russia attacked Ukraine in February. After that incident, Bangladeshi importers' dependency on Indian wheat increased sharply. So when India announced a halt in wheat exports, Bangladeshi private sector importers found themselves at a loss– at least for the time being.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, the governments have also been facing public anger as edible oil price increased by nearly 25 per cent on an average in less than three months until the end of April.
Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India remain the top importers of Indonesian palm oil. We can remember here that when Indonesia, the largest producer and exporter of palm oil in the world, declared that they would not export palm oil in early of May, the Indian government spokesman said that the Indonesian decision was unacceptable.
India and Pakistan, the two most prominent countries in South Asia, possess nearly 90 per cent of total arable lands in the region. Still, they have big populations to feed by domestic production of grains. However, the two countries, especially India, grow surplus quantities of major grains every year, including rice, wheat, maize, oilseeds, and spices. So, India is always a favoured destination for Bangladesh for importing many fresh agro-produces, including onions, tomatoes, and green chilies.
This is also true that though growing industrialization and urbanization in the region forced squeezing of agricultural GDPs, farmers continued increasing rice, wheat, and other grains and potatoes, onions, and other agri-produces.
In India and Pakistan, farmers still grow extra quantities or exportable stocks of grains. India, the biggest country in South Asia, remains on the list of top exporters of rice and wheat and many other agro-products. Pakistan is also a reliable destination for rice and other agro-product importers. So, scopes are always there for a committed intraregional trade of agro-produces to ensure food security in the region.
Indeed, productions and stocks in South Asia are not enough to meet the entire demand of the 1.96 billion people of the region. However, South Asian countries can cooperate in any crisis. The thing absent here is a formal commitment from all South Asian countries that they would help each other by intraregional trading their extra stocks of agricultural produces on a priority basis in any crisis period like the one going on now.
The regional food security issue has become critical to discuss again. The corona pandemic has invited volatility in the global food supply chain. Later, the Ukraine-Russia war almost jeopardized the global food supply chain.
Like most others in the world, South Asian countries are facing disruptions in food supplies now, and food security is a prominent political issue. The region has also watched how the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The crisis created headlines about high inflation rates with abnormal rises in the prices of foods and how that situation forced ministers and even the prime minister of that island country to resign.
The population of South Asia is more than 1.95 billion now. One of every four people in the world lives in the region, which is the most populous and densely populated geographical area globally. And, as ensuring food to all is the prime responsibility of the governments, the South Asian governments should seriously think of unity to ensure free intraregional trades of foods.
Here we can refer to Bangladesh's President Abdul Hamid also. On the occasion of the International Conference on Climate Change and Food Security in South Asia, held in the capital recently, Hamid said, "Food security is a never-ending problem… so strict measures are needed."
Earlier, the issue of food security discussion was a good topic for researchers, academicians, and development activists. Still, the ongoing global crisis in the food market has made it the most important issue for politics and political economics.
So, South Asian unity has become urgent, and governments should talk in regional forums. They should make commitments to ensure food security in the region by keeping intraregional trades of food items unrestricted.
The writer is a broadcast journalist. She can be contacted at julia.labonno@gmail.com
