Prospects of an India-Russia cooperation for Northern Agriculture

Abstract

The article discusses the food security dimension facing India and tries to look at the Arctic emerging as a future agriculture hot spot as the agriculture expands northwards due to climate change. In the recent years India has been trying to make a way into the Arctic, primarily to counter the growing Chinese influence. This push has primarily been due to Geo-strategic reasons as the strategic lever that India held to contain China in the Indian ocean region through its strong control of Sea lanes of communications and strategic Naval assets in the Malacca strait is fading due to the possible opening of the Northern Sea route. This is a very strong concern in the Indian thinking circles because it enables China to bypass the Indian security architecture in the Indian ocean region. But We have all the reasons to look at all the possible areas that Arctic may open for India in the future. One such area as spelled out in the latest Arctic policy released by Government of India on 17th March 2022 is the scope of scientific cooperation. It is important to note the stress on research mentioned in this document also looks at Arctic geology. India with its growing population, rapid urbanization and changing rainfall patterns has witnessed a decline in agricultural output over years and this trend would be aggravated due to climate change. As the Arctic shows some prospects of becoming a contributor to global food security, it is worth mentioning the need to look at the region from a food security prism and start the geological research cooperation with Russia, which has the largest arctic territory and explore the feasibility of the region towards India’s food security.

Keywords

• india-russia bilateral relationship
• russian arctic
• polar agriculture
• indian arctic policy
• food security
• arctic strategy
• arctic ecology