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By:

Parashram Patil

14 January 2026 at 8:49:45 pm

Crops of Conflict

As water and climate become instruments of geopolitical leverage, India has an opportunity to turn agricultural resilience into a new form of South-South diplomacy. Climate change is making an old truth harder to ignore: food security is national security. As water becomes scarcer, harvests more erratic and trade policies more protectionist, agriculture is moving from the margins of geopolitics to its centre. Nowhere is this clearer than in Africa, where fragile food systems intersect with...

Crops of Conflict

As water and climate become instruments of geopolitical leverage, India has an opportunity to turn agricultural resilience into a new form of South-South diplomacy. Climate change is making an old truth harder to ignore: food security is national security. As water becomes scarcer, harvests more erratic and trade policies more protectionist, agriculture is moving from the margins of geopolitics to its centre. Nowhere is this clearer than in Africa, where fragile food systems intersect with contested rivers, conflict and disrupted supply chains. For India, this presents not merely a humanitarian challenge but an opportunity to practise a more strategic form of food diplomacy. Clear Warning The Nile basin offers the clearest warning. Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia depend heavily on the river, directly or indirectly, for agriculture and livelihoods. Egypt obtains roughly 90-95 percent of its water from the Nile, with most of its withdrawals going to agriculture. Wheat, rice, maize and cotton are therefore inseparable from the country's water security. Sudan is similarly dependent on the Main Nile and its Blue and White Nile tributaries for crops including sorghum, wheat, cotton and sugarcane. Ethiopia, by contrast, relies much more heavily on rain-fed agriculture, but the Blue Nile remains crucial to its plans for agricultural and economic expansion. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has transformed this already delicate equation. The Blue Nile supplies roughly 85 percent of the Nile's runoff, giving Ethiopia substantial geographical leverage upstream. Egypt and Sudan, downstream and more dependent on the river, have consequently viewed the dam through the prism of food and water security. The dispute has its roots partly in the 1959 agreement that allocated Nile waters between Egypt and Sudan, but the rise of Ethiopia as a major upstream power has altered the political balance. The stakes are enormous. A disruption to water availability is not simply an environmental problem when millions depend on irrigated agriculture. It can affect food prices, livelihoods, migration and political stability. Across the basin, the consequences potentially extend to hundreds of millions of people. The lesson is straightforward: rivers can become geopolitical infrastructure, and crops can become strategic assets. Critical Role This is where India can play a useful role. Its longstanding diplomatic, commercial and maritime links with Africa give it an established platform. Its experience in producing wheat, rice and millets, meanwhile, gives it something more tangible: the ability to contribute to food-supply resilience. Egypt, for instance, remains heavily dependent on imports and is projected to require around 13 million tonnes of wheat imports to bridge its consumption gap. Sudan’s agricultural crisis is still more acute. Conflict and climate stress have sharply reduced cereal production, leaving output well below recent historical averages. India could therefore build food diplomacy around two complementary tracks. The first is supply. Predictable grain arrangements and strategic food buffers could help vulnerable countries absorb shocks in international markets. The second is technology. India's experience with micro-irrigation, precision farming and water-use efficiency offers tools that may help African farmers produce more with less water. The Per Drop More Crop component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana is one example. Drip irrigation, improved canal management, seepage reduction and precision agriculture cannot resolve a dispute over the Nile, but they can reduce the amount of water required to produce a given crop. For this to become a durable strategy, however, India will need to move beyond individual projects. Bilateral agricultural agreements with African countries could be converted into longer-term trade corridors and grain-supply arrangements. Multilateral platforms, including BRICS, could provide mechanisms for greater transparency in food distribution and market stabilisation. Seed exchanges could focus on drought-tolerant millets, biofortified wheat and heat-resistant maize suited to increasingly volatile climates. Indian private enterprise could be brought into this architecture. Agritech startups and Farmer-Producer Organisations could be encouraged to enter African markets through export-linked grants, incubation programmes and risk-sharing mechanisms. EXIM Bank credit lines and export guarantees could reduce the financial risks of deploying solar cold chains, irrigation systems and agricultural technologies in politically volatile markets. Public-private partnerships could also help Indian firms adapt AI-based crop advisory systems and IoT-enabled water sensors to African soils and farming practices. The larger opportunity is strategic. India’s relationship with Africa need not be confined to trade, infrastructure or diplomatic declarations. Agriculture offers a practical form of South-South cooperation in which food, technology and water efficiency reinforce one another. (The writer is a member of Maharashtra Agriculture Price Commission. Views personal.

‘Everything in Mumbai is beautiful’

Writer: Prithvi Asthana
Prithvi Asthana
Sep 27, 2025
3 min read
Pic: Ashish Rane
Pic: Ashish Rane

Very few photojournalists have captured Mumbai on their lenses like Ashish Rane has done. With a work experience of more than 25 years Rane has witnessed the evolution of Mumbai, capturing its pulse with his camera. He spoke with Prithvi Asthana on the evolving world of photojournalism and Mumbai. Excerpts…


How did your career start as a photojournalist? What inspired you?

After graduating from J.J. (Jamsetji Jeejabhoy) School of Art, I initially worked in advertising agencies. I realised the 9-5 job was not for me, and I wanted to do something different in my life. Meanwhile, my father handed me a camera, and with that, I began shooting at the weddings side-by-side while doing my job. Gradually, I started to feel a sense of connection with the camera and considered a career in journalism. The efforts bore no fruit. Accidentally, a former BJP MP, Ramdas Nayak was shot dead, and I was the first one to reach there. I was a freelancer back then, so the question was, Who should I give these photos to? Then, my friend, Naresh Kharad, helped me connect with Organiser, a magazine affiliate with the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), and handed over to them the rolls and the photos. The next day, there was a public rally at Shivaji Park where leaders like Bal Thackeray and L.K. Advani were present. When I reached there to cover the event, a large supplement was being distributed. After getting a hand on one, surprisingly, I found the supplement contained my photos, with ‘All photos by Ashish Rane’ written on it. This kick-started my career and inspired me to keep working in this field.


What was your first assignment as a photojournalist?

My first official assignment dates back to 1994, when I was working for Samyantar and Abhiyan magazine. Aishwarya Rai had won the Miss World, and I had to cover her trip as soon as she landed at Mumbai airport.


What qualities should a photojournalist have?

While there are various qualities, one vital thing for this field is having a camera by your side for 24 hours. Secondly, one should be sharp and alert to capture the events happening in the surroundings. Essential moments don’t knock on your door and tell you to capture them; your sharpness and alertness help you capture those memorable moments. Furthermore, a photojournalist should never inform others about his or her whereabouts; in photojournalism, the left hand should never know what the right hand is doing. This quality keeps you ahead of the other photographers.

How has the field of photojournalism changed, according to you?

In earlier days, photojournalists used to get two to three rolls for the camera. The photos had to be taken meticulously because of the limited rolls. Next to that was the process of developing the film rolls to get the real picture. Nowadays, everything has become easier and convenient. Digital Cameras have replaced the old cameras; now, photojournalists click in burst mode and capture a series of photos. After that, the photographers choose the best out of them. So today, the work is quickly done in a smooth manner without any problems. Another change is, if there is a mega event happening, every photojournalist will only cover it, leaving the other events out of scope.


What is the most beautiful thing about Mumbai?

I have clicked so many photos and have discovered more than 100 locations to capture and carve out the spirit of Mumbai in different images. So, in my opinion, everything in Mumbai is beautiful.


How has the city of Mumbai transformed in the past decades in terms of infrastructure?

Infrastructure has gone through a major upgradation. Before these times, I wanted to show the bird’s-eye view of Mumbai to the audience. I started to take photos in 2014, from the top-most places and buildings. The photos were easier to take due to the absence of high-rise buildings and bridges. When the pictures were showcased in my exhibition, people thought that I had taken my pictures from a drone; I had to put up a board clarifying that none of the photos were taken from drones. The change in infrastructure does hinder photography, for instance, previously, Haji Ali was visible from Worli, but now, due to the coastal road, it is difficult to see it.


How did you feel after Raj Thackeray penned a letter for you?

It was very generous of him to send me a letter. It was an amusing feeling to receive that letter. I had invited him to inaugurate my exhibition. But, as he had an important foreign trip, he could not come. His secretary called me and was sorry as Raj sir wasn’t able to come. It was a detailed letter, and Raj sir wrote it as if he had seen the whole exhibition.

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