How India can cast off food security’s foreign crutch

Among the faultlines the West Asia conflict has exposed, perhaps the most consequential is India’s vulnerabilities on the food and nutrition security front. Imported edible oils, pulses and fertilisers are leaving India’s farm economy vulnerable to global shocks. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted these secondary risks, exposing India’s growing reliance on overseas inputs for its food security.

Though the Strait of Hormuz directly chokes only a portion of India’s fertiliser supply—accounting for 20–30% of urea, 30% of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 50% of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as feedstock—its secondary impact has disrupted the supply chains and affected the cost of edible oils and pulses.

Given that India was largely self-sufficient in pulses and edible oils till a few decades ago and the demand for chemical fertilisers was low until the Green Revolution of the mid-1960s, the geopolitical conflict has brought to fore the policy distortions and practices that have crept in over time.

The repercussions are already evident. As of May 23, the year-on-year wholesale prices of edible oils are up by 4.5-14.7%, while that of pulses showed mixed trends. Urea prices have doubled, while sugar exports have been banned despite India being the world’s second largest producer and exporter.

The agriculture minister says fertilisers are “not easily available in international markets”, although he assured sufficient stocks are available for the Kharif season. The fertiliser subsidy is up by Rs 41,000 crore for FY27 (from Rs 1.71 lakh crore estimated earlier) and more is expected. Meanwhile, farmers are facing growing distress due to fertiliser shortages and rising diesel prices. Also, the prospect of El Niño threatens to accentuate the stress.

Self-reliance to Import Dependence

Official data show that India produced 97% edible oil requirements in 1992-93 and 98% of its pulse consumption in 1980-81. But by FY24, the last fiscal for which official data are available, import dependence went up to 56.26% for edible oils and 18.5% for pulses. Today, more than half of India’s edible oil requirement, along with a significant share of pulses and fertiliser inputs, comes from overseas.

A NITI Aayog report lists the strategies that made India a self-reliant country such as focused drive to raise productions, quality seeds, price support and protective tariffs. It advises re-learning the “lessons from the past strategies” and “area retention” to prevent farmers from shifting to crops like wheat, paddy and sugarcane which give assured incomes to them through open-ended procurements. India declares minimum support price for 23 crops but only wheat, paddy and sugarcane, are effectively procured.

Trade and agriculture expert Biswajit Dhar explains, “The post-liberalisation withdrawal of the government from the economy, particularly in agriculture, contributed to import dependence. A piecemeal approach or quick fixes, instead of holistic agricultural policy, caused this anomaly of huge surpluses in some (wheat, paddy and sugarcane) and huge shortages in others (edible oils and pulses).”

Another Dimension

The Economic Survey 2025-26 notes that recent incentives for ethanol blending, particularly for the promotion of maize-to-ethanol, have distorted input and output markets, driving more farmers away from edible oils, pulses and cereals like millets and shifting towards maize cultivation. Also, the expected reduction in paddy acreage has not happened. These crops compete “for land, water and labour.” It flags risks of entrenched import dependence and vulnerabilities in food and nutrition securities if the distortions are not corrected.

Ramanjaneyulu GV, the executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, who was part of the Technology Mission on Oilseeds of 1986 that made India self-reliant in edible oils, suggests wholesome changes.

“The solution lies in changing cropping policies and practices. Crop areas under pulses and edible oils need to expand and chemical fertilisers use gradually replaced with organic manures. Pulses don’t need urea, instead release nitrogen to soil; edible oils need less urea and DAP, and make phosphorous available to soil. These crops consume relatively less water and organic manures improve soil’s water retention capacity,” he says.

“Further, the food and fertiliser subsidies should be re-purposed to push for these changes and also guarantee full procurements,” Ramanjaneyulu says, adding that “only policy can create the drivers for the changes, reducing import dependence, saving forex and raising farmers income in the process.”

Half-hearted Efforts

India launched two ‘atmanirbharta’ missions for edible oils in 2024 and pulses in 2025, incorporating the key strategies the NITI Aayog listed. Although these are early days, agricultural experts are not very enthusiastic.

One expert describes these missions as “technical revivals” which require clear implementation roadmaps and close monitoring to succeed, another calls “non-serious.”

Ramanjaneyulu questions the Central government’s claims of a dramatic rise in their procurements—up by 5,359% from “1.52 lakh tonnes during 2009–14 to 82.98 lakh tonnes during 2020–25” in pulses and “more than 1,500% in the last 11 year” in oilseeds—stating that “the rise is due to poor base” and “the total procurement is too little.”

Official data show that India imported Rs 1.7 lakh crore worth edible oils and pulses worth Rs 31,794 crore in FY26, while the Centre’s approval for their procurement for the 2025-26 Kharif and Rabi seasons totalled Rs 40,684 crore.

The PM-AASHA scheme of 2018 launched to give price support for these crops through procurements and deficit payments, spent only Rs 6,941 crore in FY26 (RE) and has a budget of Rs 7,200 crore for FY27 (BE). An investigative report of 2024 had shown that the real spending under this scheme was seen only around the 2019 and 2024 general elections; none in the intervening years.

For long, experts have suggested that instead of relying on markets, India needs to create an ecosystem for procuring and supplying edible oils and pulses through the public distribution system, like wheat and rice, to ensure self-reliance.

Ensuring Fertiliser Security

Fertiliser shortages are chronic. From less than 1 million tonnes before mid-1960s, fertiliser imports shot up to 17.6 million tonnes in FY25. The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) estimates the import dependency at 68.6% of the total fertiliser value chain in FY25 (44.5% feedstocks and 24.1% finished fertilisers).

Urea (N) remains controlled, heavily subsidised and widely distributed, accounting for 60% of total fertiliser use, despite causing nutrient imbalance and contaminating soil, water and air. The Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme of 2010, which promotes non-nitrogenous phosphatic (P) and potassic (K) fertilisers, has failed to make a dent as these are decontrolled and costlier. The nano fertiliser strategy, launched in 2021 to cut down imports, has also come a cropper.

Ritika Juneja, Senior Fellow at ICRIER, says the choices for India are to de-risk imports and reduce demand. In addition to diversifying import sources and ramping up domestic production, she insists on two key changes. First, shift from price-based subsidy to the fertiliser industry to direct cash transfers to farmers, based on area, cropping pattern and irrigation or expanding the NBS to include urea to correct price distortions across fertilisers or restricting quantity of fertilisers supplied to farmers. Second, diversifying to alternatives like ammonium sulphate, Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), Single Super Phosphate (SSP), nano, bio- and speciality fertilisers.

The task is cut out. Given the vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions, India must abjure import dependence with a single-minded pursuit.