India: The many pressures that are cooking up the rice crisis

The world wants India's rice but India wants to keep more for itself to beat a likely shortfall in rice production. With five states going to polls in November, it has become all the more important for the Central government to keep food prices in check which can spike with shortfall in production. But many say India's rice export controls might trigger a global food crisis. Visuals of long queues and desperate struggles for bags of rice at grocery stores in the US did the rounds on news platforms a couple of months ago when India, the largest exporter of rice in the world, banned the export of non-basmati rice in July. . Non-basmati white rice constitutes about 25% of total rice exported from the country. India accounts for 40 per cent of global rice exports, but in the last few months, the country has prioritized domestic demand over global demands.What is happening with rice?The government last week said it is actively considering the review of the minimum export price. of ...