The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has said that it is in discussions with India on procurement of wheat as several countries face food security challenges amid the Ukraine war.

“We are in discussions with India on procurement of wheat. So, that is something which is ongoing,” the WFP’s Chief Economist Arif Husain said at a news conference here on Wednesday.

He was responding to a question on India having a huge surplus of wheat and whether the organisation was doing anything to utilise this stockpile with India as the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated the global food security situation.

To a question on whether restrictions by the World Trade Organisation over how much India can export should be suspended amid the current emergency, Mr. Husain said one of their recommendations is about exemption of the WFP from export bans.

He noted that a couple of weeks ago, several agencies of the UN had encouraged governments not to impose export bans, which then artificially increased the price of major staple commodities. “This is something which is a big recommendation and hopefully, countries are listening,” he said.

India’s wheat production stood at 109.59 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June).

The World Food Programme launched the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises on Wednesday in which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the war in Ukraine is “supercharging” a three-dimensional crisis – food, energy and finance — with devastating impacts on the world’s most vulnerable people, countries and economies.

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