Food-surplus India now aiding global food security: PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India has become a food-surplus country and is now providing solutions for achieving global food and nutritional security.

“India’s food security was a matter of concern for the world but today India is providing solutions for global food and nutrition security,” Modi said at the 32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) in New Delhi.

Modi said India is the largest producer of milk, pulses and spices, and the second-largest producer of foodgrain, fruit, vegetables, cotton, sugar, tea and farmed fish.

He

said when the conference was hosted for the first time in India, the country had just achieved independence, and it was a challenging time for the country’s agriculture and food security. The conference returned to India after 65 years, with the 10th ICAE held in Mysore in 1958.

Stating that agriculture is at the centre of India’s economic policies, Modi said 90% of the small farmers of India own little land but are the biggest strength of India’s food security.

He said a similar situation is prevalent in several developing countries in Asia, making India’s model replicable.

On the country’s 15 agro-climatic zones, Modi said, “Be it farming on the land, the Himalayas, in the desert, water-scarce regions or coastal areas, this diversity is crucial for global food security and makes India a ray of hope in the world.