The matter of wheat is hot these days. Due to the Russo-Ukraine War Wheat supply decreased in the world and the fear of a big crisis is starting to be expressed. Here, the Government of India banned the export of wheat. Some powerful countries are questioning this move. Wheat is so important. There must have been many kings and emperors and dictators, but it is difficult to find any other example of the way wheat has made its mark in the whole world.

These days the world is troubled by the short supply of wheat and its high price. The Russo-Ukraine war has had an effect, this time the wheat crop is also weak. Today the price of wheat in our country is about 20 percent more than last year. Flour has also become costlier by about 15 percent. In Europe also, the price of flour is at a record high in many places. Before going into details about the reasons for this, let us take a look at the dominance of wheat, which I have just mentioned.

In fact, barring all the bacteria and viruses, no one else on this earth has an empire as big as wheat. Even in the era of deceitful occupation of other countries and making them their colonies, no one had such a large area as wheat. Be it Britain, France or Spain of that era, the secrets of everyone fade in front of it.

Generally people think that wheat was once a wild plant and humans cultivated it to make it fit for civilized world. But if you look at the journey of wheat, then the matter seems to be different. It is clear that wheat actually taught the stray and nomadic Homo sapiens to stay in one place and later on became an important basis of their life.

For about 2.5 million years, our ancestors depended on wild fruits and flowers and animal hunting. It is found from all the studies that the situation started changing rapidly about 10 thousand years ago from today. That change can be called a major agricultural revolution. Wheat was one of the wildest things in those days. It was found exclusively in some areas of the Middle East. However, within the next two thousand years, wheat reached all the places where there was human settlement.

How would all this happen? Eminent scholar Yuval Nova Harari throws light on this. In his book Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, Harari wrote, ‘It was not all that easy. Wheat needed many humans. He did not like rocks and pebbles. So the Sapiens started working hard to make a field for wheat. Wheat is such a plant that it does not like to share space, water and food with other plants. That’s why humans used to work day and day in removing other plants from the wheat fields. Harari writes, ‘Wheat should not get sick, For this, the sapiens were also engaged in arranging to protect it from insects. To protect them from rats and locusts, farmers fencing and guarding the fields. Wheat also feels thirsty. So humans also made arrangements for canals and wells. To satisfy the hunger of wheat, Sapiens put animal excreta in the fields so that wheat could get nutrients.

Man did all this by going against his own nature. At that time there was no scene of agriculture in the development order of humans. Humans had to climb trees and surround animals for hunting. The provision of agriculture and irrigation, at least at that time, was not in the human syllabus.

But the accompaniment of wheat changed man. And recover a great price for yourself as well. Studies of older male skeletons show that during and after that wheat-dominated agricultural revolution, humans suffered from many diseases such as arthritis, hernias and slipped discs. Wheat flourished on the strength of human hard work. Many of his other wild companions ceased to exist and their territory was also occupied by wheat. According to the US Department of Agriculture, wheat is cultivated in an area of ​​​​2.2 million square kilometers in the world today. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, wheat is the staple food for more than 35 percent of the world’s population.

Now coming to the crisis that the world is facing. China has the highest production of wheat in the world and India is at number two. But they themselves have so much consumption that they are unable to export anything special. Rather, China has to import wheat from outside. India’s exports are also negligible in relation to the supply in the world. Exports are large from the territory of Russia and Ukraine. These two countries contribute about a third of the world’s supply of wheat. However, after Russia’s attack on Ukraine on 24 February, this wheat supply chain has been disrupted and in a way broken.

Now if the supply of one-third of the wheat suddenly stops, then there was bound to be panic. Here in India, the hit of hot weather had a bad effect on the yield of wheat. Other countries exporting wheat are also taking precautions.

Due to this, the prices of wheat are skyrocketing and the G7 group of countries has expressed concern over India’s decision to stop exports. India has decided to stop exports to control its prices. However, major exporting countries are troubled by the fall in wheat production.

The first indication of the wheat crisis that is now visible was from an Egyptian company. Before the war, the company imported wheat mainly from Russia and Ukraine. But he ordered 60 thousand tonnes of wheat to an export firm in Washington. That export firm belongs to a Japanese trading company.

The Egyptian firm’s move came as a surprise to the export firm as it had not placed any orders for the past two decades. The Egyptian company took this step only in March, only a few weeks after the Ukrainian war started. That is, when a large part of Europe had not even woken up, then that Egyptian company had anticipated the emergence of wheat crisis.

In fact, about 50 countries are dependent on wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine. There are still some export companies operating from Russia, but they are finding it very difficult due to the sanctions imposed on Russia.

Here, data released this month from the US Department of Agriculture is showing that wheat production has decreased in most of the producing and exporting countries. According to his estimates, this year the worldwide production of 77.50 million tonnes of wheat is estimated. This is 40 lakh tonnes less than last year. Due to the rapidly rising prices, there may also be a risk of wheat going away from the plate of low-income people. This danger is also because the next crop of wheat is going to be hit by inflation. Fertilizer prices will go up due to higher natural gas prices. This will have an impact on the cultivation of wheat. The cost of storing wheat will also increase due to the high price of petrol and diesel.

The Russo-Ukraine war has also become a challenge to the relationship between humans and wheat. It may be that in such a situation, countries like India should remember their heritage of diversity in food and they should start saving and strengthening it. The rest of the world may also find a way to increase the space of other grains in the plate.

 

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.