Food Security
Clear distinction needed between food security, coercive trade steps - Goyal
This story was originally published at 21:36 IST on 1 October 2026
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NEW DELHI – There is a need to draw a clear distinction between steps taken to ensure food security and coercive trade actions, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday, adding that food must never be used as an instrument to pressurise any country. Ensuring food security for all and creating growth opportunities for farmers, while protecting their interests are integral to India, the minister said at the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hosted under the US G20 Presidency.
"Countries of the Global South are among the most adversely impacted by the food, fuel and fertiliser crises caused by global conflicts," he said. Today's fertiliser shortage could become tomorrow's food crisis, Goyal said in a session on food and trade. His comments come amid the ongoing war in West Asia, which is now in its seventh month and has caused havoc in the global supply chain for energy and fertilisers.
Goyal reaffirmed India's commitment to a rules-based, fair, non-discriminatory, equitable, transparent, open, inclusive and multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its core. The ministers attending the session reached a consensus on the outcome document titled 'G20 Statement on the Weaponization of Food through Coercive Trade Actions', expressing their intent to cooperate on the matter, it added.
Goyal highlighted that India maintains reserve stocks, procures from small and marginal farmers and, in the event of a harvest shortfall, adopts temporary and transparent measures to ensure the availability and affordability of food. End
Reported by Radhika Tiwari
Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya
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