Stabilising food prices: Focus must be on resilient crop varieties

Notably, temperature shocks affect crops during critical growth stages. This year's Economic Survey also highlighted how extreme weather conditions disproportionately affected perishable food items

The early arrival of the monsoon, which is expected to be above normal this year, will aid activity in the agricultural sector. However, output depends on several factors, and changing weather patterns can create longer-term challenges. In this context, a new research article, published in the Reserve Bank of India’s latest monthly bulletin, for example, has flagged how weather anomalies, ie deviation in rainfall and temperature from their normal levels, are disrupting supply chains and fuelling sharp spikes in vegetable prices in India. Using the data spanning from April 2014 to March 2024, it concludes that food-price volatility, especially for