India’s population is nearing 1.4 billion and plays an important role in the global economy. Industry, employing about three-fifths of the Indian workforce, and agriculture, employing the other two-fifths, are the twin engines of India’s soaring economy.

Both sectors depend on fossil fuels, and the demand for fossil fuels in India is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. The agricultural sector in particular is completely dependent on fossil fuel-based crop enhancement systems.

Indian agriculture provides food for the Indian people to be productive. Not only India’s but the world’s food security is possible only because of high agricultural productivity.

Developed nations such as the United States and Japan have all witnessed agricultural revolutions resulting in increased farm productivity. Today, China and India are emerging as new major leaders in agriculture.

India’s population was 169 million in the 18th century. It reached 340 million at India’s independence in 1947, and it has now surged to 1.38 billion.

As of 2020, agriculture alone provided employment for about over two-fifths of the Indian work force. It is a source of livelihood not only for farmers and field hands but also for traders, processors, wholesalers, and retailers—all depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood.

Agriculture has also been a main source of income for rural India, where most of India’s poorest live. It helps maintaining a healthy rural demand by increasing rural people’s purchasing power.

For a country like India, relying on crop imports would cost dearly. But fortunately, we are self-sufficient, thanks to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the ever-increasing availability of fertilizers and pesticides.

Besides meeting its domestic demand, India also exports food. Agricultural exports brought US$34 million into the Indian reserves in 2019–20.

Not only the fuel that drives agricultural equipment, whether gasoline or diesel, but also the fertilizers that ensure high crop yields come from fossil fuels. Among the most widely used fertilizers, urea plays a key role, and more than 90 percent of it is produced with the help of natural gas. In other words, fossil fuels’ role in India’s agricultural sector is quintessential.

It is astonishing that global leaders, in countries that benefitted immensely from fossil fuels in the past two centuries, are trying to coerce India into adopting policies that threaten the very essence of its agrarian economy.

Despite the global theatrics surrounding climate change and carbon dioxide emissions, India is confident that it will maintain a stable supply of fossil fuel for its agricultural, manufacturing and the electricity sector.

Featured image by Amit Ranjan on Unsplash.