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As the West Asia situation impacts fertiliser proviso globally, India should displacement its semipermanent absorption to gradually determination distant from the older exemplary of fertiliser-dependent cultivation practices portion not forgetting lessons learnt from the Sri Lankan experience, according to Sudha Meiyappan, Member, Economic Affairs Committee, Southern India Chamber Of Commerce And Industry (SICCI).
Participating successful a sheet treatment connected the taxable ‘Impact of West Asia Crisis connected Economic Disruptions and Sustainability: Implications for India’ astatine Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS) connected Wednesday (May 13, 2026), she said that successful the agelong run, India should question to marque agriculture sustainable by adopting earthy farming, agro-forestry, and assorted different forms of sustainable movements that are taking spot successful the sector. She, however, enactment distant a caveat: India should instrumentality attraction to prime up lessons from the Sri Lankan experience.
The land state had made a abrupt displacement to integrated farming, with a prohibition connected fertiliser imports starring to a driblet successful accumulation of nutrient grains causing economical disruption and societal unrest.
The sheet treatment was portion of the Diplomacy and Sustainability Dialogues 2026 jointly organised by the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technological Sciences (SIMATS) and The Hindu.
Ms. Meiyappan said that successful the abbreviated term, India should proceed to travel the existent policies portion focusing connected a modulation to sustainable practices successful the agelong term. “In the abbreviated term, you proceed doing what you are doing today. You don’t alteration to integrated today, but implicit the agelong term, you slowly, gradually veer away...not integrated per se, but thing that’s much climate-resilient and much sustainable successful nature. You can’t get escaped of fertilisers but [determine] however overmuch you are utilizing and for what harvest you are utilizing and wherever the harvest is being grown,” she said, responding to a pointed question from the moderator Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu.
She besides warned that India was looking astatine curtailment of idiosyncratic depletion by virtuousness of wide terms emergence owed to the summation successful substance prices, adjacent without the announcement from the Prime Minister. Gold prices, for example, went beyond the threshold of being a harmless haven adjacent earlier the war. After the announcement, the artisans and the section shops selling golden volition beryllium impacted heavily, Ms. Meiyappan added.
Col. Rajeev Agarwal (retd), Senior Research Consultant, Chintan Research Foundation, said that the Iran warfare has fixed wide dimensions to projects similar India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) portion it has exposed the vulnerability of the existing commercialized routes and connectivity. Choke points and struggle zones, helium said, would ever marque commercialized connectivity and proviso lines vulnerable. An alternate is required that bypasses some these chokepoints and struggle zones. Projects similar IMEC, with definite modifications fixed the geopolitical changes, could supply specified a framework.
S. Pandiaraj, prof of International Law and Trade, Saveetha School of Law, said that India’s basal successful overseas affairs should beryllium pragmatic but besides run successful a mode that would not forsake the values and principles that it ever stood for, whether it was the 1955 Bandung Conference oregon the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Quoting a celebrated movie dialog “with large powerfulness comes large responsibility”, Dr. Pandiaraj said that India had been trying to execute the portion connected becoming a large powerfulness each the clip but the aforesaid could not beryllium said astir the constituent of responsibility. Otherwise, the state would person taken a overmuch much stern basal connected the conflicts successful Ukraine, Gaza oregon Iran. Giving an example, helium said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed and it took 5 days for India to condole his death.
“The transactional approach, the springiness and instrumentality attack would lone instrumentality america up to a constituent and not beyond. We’ll suffer our standing. So, India should beryllium cautious successful presumption of treading assorted passages,” Dr. Pandiaraj observed.
