Besides import curb, farm exports to China key to India cutting deficit

India requires more than just import curbs to narrow its current-account deficit. It needs to tap a new crop of measures, literally.

Expanding agricultural exports such as soybeans and cotton to China by exploiting opportunities from a global trade war will help cut the deficit, economists at CRISIL Ltd. said.

Soybeans are at the heart of the trade war between the U.S. and China and cotton isn’t far behind. It puts India in a position to step up and fill the gap left by the U.S., according to economists Dharmakirti Joshi and Pankhuri Tandon.

China is already the top market for India’s overall