Implications of Trade Liberalization for Food Security Under the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership

Abstract

The objective of the chapter is to understand India's role in providing food security through trade with the ASEAN under the India-ASEAN Strategic Partnership. A dynamic panel has been employed to assess and estimate the said objective, given that India and most of the ASEAN countries are considered emerging markets. Econometric investigation points out that while almost more than half the variables in the augmented gravity model hold good, food imports from India, agricultural labour force, common maritime border, distance from India, food price index, food production index, GDP (size) of the importing country, per capita GDP of the importing economy, and trade openness have statistically significant effect on the food trade from India to the ASEAN. Improving maritime infrastructure and agri-logistics, investing in climate change and water management while augmenting the agri-labour productivity are of paramount importance in order to improve food trade between India and the ASEAN.