From the Gulf to the grain: Why India's energy crisis is a food security crisis

India is confronting an unprecedented convergence of crises, where geopolitical turbulence in West Asia intersects with structural climate vulnerabilities in agriculture. The ongoing conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran has disrupted shipments of petroleum, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through the Strait of Hormuz, directly affecting India’s energy supply.

India imports nearly 85 per cent of its crude oil, about 69 per cent of its LNG and roughly 46 per cent of its LPG from the Gulf region. These shipments have been delayed or blocked, triggering volatility in energy prices.

The impact of these disruptions extends far beyond fuel stations, reaching the core of India’s agricultural economy. Rising fuel and fertiliser costs threaten farmers even before sowing begins, underlining how energy security and food security are inseparable.

The link between energy and food production is clear. Fertilisers, especially nitrogen-based ones such as urea, rely on natural gas as feedstock, while potash and phosphates are largely imported. Domestic fertiliser production depends on steady access to LNG, and disruptions involving suppliers such as Qatar, Oman and the UAE have already begun affecting urea, DAP and MOP availability.

As of March 2026, more than 26 per cent of India’s fertiliser imports originate in West Asia, and disruptions in LNG supplies due to the Strait of Hormuz blockade have already cut urea production by nearly 50 percent, intensifying price volatility ahead of the Kharif season. Diesel powers irrigation pumps, tractors, transport vehicles and cold storage systems, meaning any spike in fuel prices cascades across the agricultural value chain. These disruptions raise production costs, limit access to inputs and threaten crop yields.

Rice exports worth roughly Rs 25,000 crore annually are already stranded due to halted shipping. Bananas from Barwani are selling at nearly half their usual price, while onions from Nashik remain stuck in ports, unable to reach Gulf markets. Such developments highlight the fragile interdependence between energy and food systems — an interdependence policymakers can no longer ignore.

This immediate energy shock compounds a longer-term structural challenge: climate change. According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), 310 of India’s 651 districts are classified as climate-vulnerable, with 109 categorised as “very high” risk. Between 2019 and 2024, nearly 80 per cent of farmers experienced climate-related crop losses. In 2024 alone, 3.2 million hectares of cropland were affected by extreme weather events including floods, droughts and heatwaves.

India is therefore confronting a dual crisis: sudden disruptions in energy supply and sustained declines in agricultural productivity due to climate change. Neither challenge can be effectively addressed in isolation, and both threaten farmers’ livelihoods, rural economies and national food security.

Existing policy frameworks remain inadequate to address these overlapping threats. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana primarily compensates farmers for acute crop losses caused by cyclones, floods or pest infestations, but does not adequately account for gradual productivity declines caused by long-term climatic stress. Similarly, initiatives under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) remain limited in reach, with fragmented interventions and insufficient funding leaving many climate-vulnerable regions underserved.

Even the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013, which was designed to protect productive irrigated multi-cropped land, contains an “exceptional circumstances” clause that allows diversion of fertile agricultural land. There is currently no statutory requirement to assess food security impacts before land acquisition decisions are made, leaving key choices vulnerable to short-term industrial or economic pressures.

Government data shows that between 2020-21 and 2024-25, prior approval was granted under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 for diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes in 6,188 proposals covering 92,062.85 hectares.

Recognising these gaps, two Bills have been introduced in the Rajya Sabha aimed at strengthening agricultural resilience and protecting farmers’ livelihoods. The first, an amendment Bill to the Land Acquisition Act, prohibits acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land in climate-vulnerable districts, effectively closing the existing loophole. It also mandates a Food Security Impact Assessment before any acquisition, ensuring decisions are informed by scientific evaluation of productivity, food availability and rural livelihoods.

To ensure accountability, the Bill provides for a Post-Acquisition Food Security Review mechanism to assess long-term impacts. The objective is to ensure that national food resilience is not undermined by short-term economic considerations.

The second legislative proposal, the Climate Resilient Agriculture and Farmer Protection Bill, seeks to create a statutory National Mission for Climate Resilient Agriculture with clearly defined responsibilities, replacing fragmented schemes currently operating under NMSA. It proposes an index-based cash transfer mechanism to provide a guaranteed income floor for approximately 6 crore small and marginal farmers, helping shield them from climate shocks and energy price volatility.

The Bill also promotes Climate Resilient Villages, hyperlocal weather advisories and improved insurance frameworks aimed at reducing dependence on input-intensive agriculture while encouraging adaptive cropping systems. By lowering energy dependency in farming practices, the proposal seeks to strengthen farmers’ capacity to withstand shocks arising from geopolitical conflicts or volatility in global energy markets.

These legislative measures draw on India’s constitutional framework. Articles 21, 48 and 51A(g) emphasise the right to life, promotion of agriculture and the duty to protect the environment. Protecting fertile land, securing farmers’ livelihoods and safeguarding food security are therefore not merely sectoral concerns but matters of national resilience.

India feeds 1.4 billion people, and any failure to act at the intersection of energy shocks, climate vulnerability and land diversion could have far-reaching consequences. International experience shows that countries such as Egypt and Bangladesh have recognised the close relationship between energy security and food security, underscoring the need for integrated policy responses.

India cannot afford to treat energy, agriculture and climate as separate silos. The Bills seek to create a more resilient agricultural system by protecting productive land, guaranteeing farmer incomes and promoting climate-adaptive practices. Together, they aim to mitigate immediate risks arising from disruptions in West Asia while addressing the long-term structural decline in crop productivity caused by climate change.

Safeguarding farmers’ land, livelihoods and productivity remains both a constitutional obligation and a moral imperative. Acting decisively now can help ensure that India remains food-secure, economically stable and resilient in the face of future global shocks.

Renuka Chowdhury is a member of the Rajya Sabha and former Union minister