India's External Affairs Minister Warns of Potential Food Crisis Amid Fertilizer Shortages

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar warned at the Asia Society Dialogue that the world could face a major food crisis in the coming months. He said that the world is already facing a severe shortage of fertilizer due to the Ukraine and Iran Gulf conflicts. According to him, these two wars have a deep and stressful impact on the economies of the Global South. He also described the security of oil supplies and the politics over it as a major concern. Jaishankar said that the biggest concern is about energy, because the oil market is already very tight. Politics over oil drives prices, while prices need to be stabilized at this time. According to Jaishankar, there is a question of security of oil supply on the one hand and the politics of oil on the other. Both are promoting each other and this is creating a double or more serious crisis. On the food crisis, he said that some big grain exporting countries will not be able to send their shipments out, especially from the Black Sea. There is also a huge shortage of fertilizer in the world, because there are large producers of it in the West and Russia, which is affected by the super-seasonal energy crisis. Jaishankar said that there is a big impact on their food production in the coming months.