MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Here in the U.S., Americans have felt the war in the Middle East and the shipping interruptions in the Strait of Hormuz at the gas pump. In South Asia, they are feeling it in the fields. That's because a third of the global fertilizer trade passes through the strait. Much of it was shipped to South Asian countries, and now there are shortages. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports from a market town in northwestern India.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: There's faded ads on the walls, seed varieties on display in the tiny fertilizer shop that sits on the main street of Vikramgarh. What there isn't is fertilizer. Producer Shweta Desai points to a man at the counter.
SHWETA DESAI, BYLINE: This gentleman has come, and he's really like, hey, what's the problem? Like, I'm not getting any fertilizers.
DATTU JATRESHINGRA: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Dattu Jatreshingra (ph) wipes his face with a handkerchief and says he needs fertilizer for his eggplant crop now. It's the time to apply it to get an abundant yield. He says, "I've been searching for days." For 68-year-old Jatreshingra, this is existential. His 1.5-acre farm is his livelihood, as it is for millions of Indians who work in agriculture. He asks, what can we do?
JATRESHINGRA: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Sitting in a farmhouse, fertilizer store owner Randhir Patil (ph) says he doesn't like turning folks away. But the 25 tons of fertilizer he ordered from the state-run company hasn't arrived.
RANDHIR PATIL: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: An official at an agricultural development corporation in Maharashtra tells NPR that fertilizer plants in his state are operating at around half capacity because of shortages. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to journalists. In other states, the government says fertilizer plants are operating at 70% capacity. All this is because the Mid East war has halted shipments of raw materials and the liquid natural gas that India needs to produce much of its fertilizer. So the government is sitting on the supplies that it has to save it for the all-important June sowing season. That's when monsoon rains come and millions of farmers begin sowing their paddy fields. The rice crop is the priority because it's a chief source of livelihood for millions of farmers, and it's the food staple here.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: To underscore the point, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, told farmers he wouldn't abandon them and they would have fertilizer for their rice crop. But there's worry about what will happen down the line.
HIMANSHU: We are actually hanging by a thread.
HADID: That's economics professor Himanshu. He only has one name, and he focuses on food security and agriculture.
HIMANSHU: We may be in a comfortable position right now, but it all depends on how things pan out in the next four or five months or six months.
HADID: For now, Maximo Torero, the chief economist at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, says last week's ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. came just in time.
MAXIMO TORERO: The question is how fast vessels can move in the next two weeks.
HADID: But the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. Torero says if it doesn't open soon...
TORERO: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka - farmers will have to make a decision.
HADID: A decision to use less fertilizer or plant fewer crops, which means lower yields, which means less food, higher prices and more hunger for the most vulnerable.
Back in Vikramgarh, the war is already upturning lives, like Dashrat Lahenge (ph). When we visit, his family is picking beans.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGLES JANGLING)
HADID: His daughter tosses them into a plastic bag.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEANS DROPPING INTO A BAG)
HADID: Lahenge says they're picking at a loss. Middlemen will only take 10 cents a kilo. He was expecting 70 cents.
DASHRAT LAHENGE: (Non-English language spoken).
(SOUNDBITE OF ROOSTER CROWING)
HADID: Lahenge says he had hoped to compensate for his losses by selling his crop of green chilies to traders who export to the Middle East, but he couldn't find fertilizer to bump up the yield. Regardless, middlemen have told him that because of the war, it's too expensive to export food to the Middle East. So they aren't buying his stock.
LAHENGE: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: It's all losses this year, Dashrat says. Still, they'll plant their rice paddy fields when the monsoon comes. He says, "in a year like this, we'll grow rice just to eat."
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Vikramgarh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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