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A recent decision made by the Indian government has led to a global concern. The videos of NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) rushing to supermarkets and filling the trolleys with multiple rice bags are getting viral all across social media. The NRIs were found struggling in queues to buy as many rice bags as possible. Some U.S. markets took the decision of limiting rice bag sales due to long-lasting queues outside stores. Some stores even decided to allow the purchase of one rice bag per family. What could be the reason for chaos like this to occur? On July 20th,2023 the Indian Ministry passed on an amendment to its export policy and changed ‘Free with the export duty of 20 percent’ to ‘Restricted’. A ban has been initiated for broken rice and non-basmati rice. This ban on rice has led to a significant increase in rice prices. A similar incident took place in May 2022 when India banned wheat export due to a surge in domestic wheat prices. This decision was taken because India was 2nd largest wheat exporter globally.

India is responsible for 40% of rice export at a global scale. Other countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc account for the global rice export after India. While the NRIs struggle to get their hands on as many rice bags as possible, especially in the U.S., Indians here in India enjoy thanking God for the rice privilege they have here in India. I could tell the pride we Indians could feel for being prioritized for the rice availability here in India. It is also worth noting, how this rice export ban could bring down the export sales in India to significantly small numbers.

As per recent data, the export of non-basmati white rice by India is approximately 64 lakh tonnes in addition to the export of basmati rice of approximately 45 lakh tonnes. The parboiled rice export was found to be approximately 78 lakh tonnes.

El Nino effect has been highlighted recently and people have started worrying about this effect. El Nino effect leads to the release of more heat into the atmosphere but can have different impacts in different parts of the world. It can either lead to severe droughts or heavy rainfalls or sudden snowfall depending on climatic conditions in different parts of the world.

The reason for the occurrence of the El Nino event is the warm water build-up by the side of the equator in the Eastern part of the Pacific. This leads to the warming of the ocean surface which in turn warms the atmosphere and causes the moisture-rich air to rise and this results in rainstorms. The El Nino effect in India has led to many difficulties. It was observed that the El Nino effect in India is responsible for the previous drought situation and the sudden ongoing incessant rainfalls. This has destroyed the food crops in many parts of India. The rainfall has hit some parts of India so severely that the educational institutions and most of workplaces were given holidays and called upon for online mode of education for students in addition to work from home for some companies.

The recent ban on the export of rice by India has put other countries in shock. IMF(International Monetary Fund) has asked India to let go of the ban on the export of rice.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has led other countries to ask India for an incessant supply of rice. Ukraine a few years back was one of the top rice exporters. But soon when Russia decided to invade Ukraine and destroy its supplies, rice export has become a global concern. Russia now is one of the top exporters of wheat grains. The severe damage to Ukraine's grain supplies has led other nations to rely on India for rice export.

Unfortunately, incessant rains in India caused a significant decrease in rice production. The major Indian states responsible for the production of rice have been severely affected by rains and the rice crops have been damaged. This has led to a reduction in rice yield in India. This is one of the reasons for the sudden rice ban by the Indian ministry.

Indian Ministry has prioritized its nation for the rice supply. Since the rice yield obtained this year is not as expected due to the heavy rains, Indian Ministry took this situation as a major alert and imposed a rice ban to prevent starving of one's own countrymen. Indians residing in India have been in awe of the decision taken. Whereas the other nations are struggling to fill their houses with rice bags.

Rice is a major staple food for Indians. Hence, Indians residing in other countries are facing difficulty in regard to the ban. Another reason for implementing a ban on rice export is to not steal away the staple food from India because the continuation of export in a low production scenario will lead to a surge in the prices of rice in India itself. Hence to prevent the rice from getting expensive, the decision was taken.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), India has often implemented a ban on export as a measure to prevent starvation of one's own countrymen i.e. to avoid food scarcity due to an increase in prices which is in turn due to the export. Even during the food price crisis in the years 2007-2008 and 2010-2011, India called for a ban on non-basmati rice export.

According to an article from the Kathmandu Post, a ban on the export of rice(non-basmati and broken rice) for a long period can have a severe impact on nations dependent on Indian rice imports. As per experts, the neighboring country to India I.e Nepal could face a severe crisis because of its large dependence on India for rice. The farmers suffering from lumpy skin disease and the adverse effects of El Nino might lead to a food crisis in Nepal.

To prevent future scarcity of rice in India, the Ministry has taken up this tough decision of the rice export ban. What do you think of the ban implemented? What according to you could’ve been an alternative to this ban?

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