With a chapati crisis brewing at home, can India afford to feed the world?

As global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius or more above pre-industrial levels, the country's chapati challenge is only going to become more urgent

The only thing India can possibly do during this year’s global food crisis is to not make it any worse for its own poor. As the cost of basic nutrition balloons everywhere, the second-most-populous nation’s best bet is to fall back on its extensive system of state procurement and public distribution to soften the blow.

But, around mid-April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised US President Joe Biden that India could feed the world. If the World Trade Organization allowed it, “India is ready to supply food stocks to the world from tomorrow,” Modi said, recalling the conversation.

Modi’s ministers and