Today’s Fertilizer Shortage Is Tomorrow’s Food Crisis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose the first session at the G20 Summit to highlight global challenges stemming from climate change, Covid pandemic, and the Ukraine conflict and damage it caused to global supply chains.

There was a crisis of essential goods all over the world, with the challenge being more severe for the poor citizens of every country as they don’t have the financial capacity to deal with the double whammy of poverty and the crisis of essential goods, Modi said while speaking at the session on food and energy security in Bali.

Today’s fertiliser shortage is tomorrow’s food crisis, for which the world will not have a solution, he said, calling for building mutual agreements to keep the supply chain both stable and assured.

Taking the baton from Indonesia, India will assume the presidency of the G20 from Dec. 1, 2022, until the G20 summit in November 2023.

Modi drew attention to multilateral institutions such as the UN who have been unsuccessful in addressing these issues. Discussions on multilateral institutions, particularly multilateral development banks is expected to be a key topic during India’s presidency.

The Prime Minister also called for a ceasefire and the resumption of diplomacy in Ukraine. The onus of creating a new world order for the post-Covid period lies on the leaders’ shoulders, Modi said.