RICE is back in the national conversation. It has been resurrected by our president, whose own father championed agriculture like no one else in the past three decades.

In the age of globalization, it made perfect sense to import what you did not have enough of. That was the era of cheap food and 'unli' rice. Then came the war in Ukraine, and the global economy started uncoupling. The supply of fertilizer and grain from Ukraine was disrupted. India banned rice exports. 'Food protectionism' became the new byword. That exposed what the President himself has called '32 years of neglect.' We have become a nation that cannot feed itself. Reversing that will take time.