India carving out opportunities amid global food crisis: FM

Washington: Amid a global shortage of food grains in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war, countries like India which have the potential to address this by exporting agricultural products, are facing difficulties from the World Trade Organization, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

Responding to India's concerns, World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during the just-concluded annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank said that the organisation is looking at it very positively and hopefully it would be sorted.

The United States has requested India to help out with the food grain situation right now, India's Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu noted during a

news conference with the minister.

"I was very positively inspired by the fact that in the plenary...response from the World Trade Organization was very positive. I hope we'll break that decade-long restriction which has held us back from using our agricultural products after taking care of the buffer we need for food security purposes. So that the farmers also can get a better return," Sitharaman said in response to a question.

"The opportunities that we have identified and have progressed in it...our export of food grains, particularly wheat. We are now tapping for our manufacturing goods to move to destinations which are now suddenly found as their suppliers are in a situation they can't continue with uninterrupted supply, she said.

The war has revealed some realities to the world, she added.

"In some of the interactions that I've had, in one of the sessions (that) impacted the plenary itself, I had voiced that countries like India which have potential for exporting agricultural produce, particularly cereals, have faced difficulties with the World Trade Organization, she said.