Many people believe that countries should produce food for all population eats and import food as little as possible. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Complete inland

food

production

and little

imports

is a popular idea among certain sections of the society. These people argue that

imports

put pressure on the government;

therefore

, countries should be self-sufficient in

food

production

. In my opinion,

this

argument is partially flawed and countries should maintain a balance between

imports

and in house

production

. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the reasons for the same. Undoubtedly,

imports

create pressure on the economy of a nation and

food

being the basic necessity, import of agricultural produce can soar the import debts.

Moreover

, natural calamities,

such

as floods, tsunamis, can disrupt supply chains, creating a severe shortage of

food

in a country.

For instance

, at the outbreak of Covid 19

imports

took a hit and many countries that were dependent on

imports

for the farm produce faced the shortage problem. On the other side, producing

food

for the entire population requires resources that can be better utilized

otherwise

. Imagine the amount of

land

required to produce

food

for an entire nation. There is an opportunity cost of not using the

land

for industries and factories that can produce goods and services to be exported.

Moreover

, the

land

a nation possess may not support farm

production

because of various reasons

such

as quality of soil, weather etc. In

such

cases, huge investments are required to make the

land

fertile enough to produce quality yields. These investments can be better utilized to set up corporations for better returns on capital infused. To summarise, having a complete inland

production

of

food

is not a strong argument because of various flaws discussed above. Nations should try to maintain a balance between

imports

and self-

production

for optimized results.