Food and Energy Security

The Missing Links

MGK

4 min read

·

Jun 7, 2026

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A blog series to explore the interdependence of food and energy security.

Motivation

I wrote a book, Atoms to Acres, last winter based on my lived experiences in high-tech jobs in Atomic Energy as a nuclear engineer and farming in a tribal area in central India. I had briefed about food security, giving some policy suggestions and directions on rapidly spreading sustainable and secure farming.

While engaging in farming, we found that the electricity supply is erratic and power outages are common. To mitigate this, we considered installing a solar power plant under the grid-connected PM-KUSUM scheme. Befitting my scientific temperament, I started studying photovoltaic solar power in its totality — solar panels, MMS, BOS, string inverters, and finally, the evacuation of energy to the grid.

I found that there has been an enormous push by the Government of India (GOI) through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) since 2019, and many large corporations have launched Giga solar panel factories. However, a closer examination revealed that the basic silicon wafers are imported; they are only assembled in India as modules (using silicon wafers, cover glass, aluminum frames, etc.).

It has been more than 7 years, but a silicon ingot foundry associated with crystal pullers and wafer slicing is still missing, though some efforts are now being made. Our ambitious national solar plan will be crippled if such “backward integration” is not pushed hard. It is well known that this is technologically complex, requiring huge funds and effort with large lead times and a high risk of obsolescence.

While delving deep into the subject, I noticed a very eerie situation. The government has claimed that, by now, India has achieved 50% of its installed energy capacity through solar by now. It’s misleading. Gigawatt- or Megawatt-wise okay, but if you check the actual energy delivered to the grid by solar, its Plant Load Factor (PLF) is only around 18% since the sun does not shine for 24 hours. So, in essence, we have not even reached 8% to 9% of our actual energy demand.

Such a startling scenario forced me to review the entire energy spectrum of the country — coal, oil, hydro, Nuclear renewables, and biomass, grid-distribution network , along with energy storage — and its relationship to food security. Every drop of oil and every kWh generated has many users — loads like Fertilisers and heavy industries, railways, road-transport, aviation, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, urban-civic amenities, and households for lights, ACs, desert coolers, fridge and so on. Farming is one of them; though non-trivial, but essential. Now add other crazy energy guzzlers: digital infrastructure and huge data centers! This list will only increase with time. It looks like energy is becoming more important than food!

Food is produced by farmers across the country, and its “backward integration” demands the availability of energy to pump water to fields, run tractors and farm machinery, handle transport, power seed grading plants, process grains, run cold storage, Urea fertilisers, and finally deliver food to households. Each stage needs energy, be it electricity, diesel, or coal.

The Blog Series

I am aware that there are many institutions, experts, researchers, government ministries, electricity authorities, NITI Aayog, and commissions (like ONGC), and huge reports and documents are available on the internet. However, most of us have a very sketchy picture of these issues, and many do not even know how the whole spectrum of energy is managed in simple terms. It is time we, the people of India, understand this and together sensitize everyone to the issue beyond the walls of government establishments.

Modern public discourse features a striking contrast. Our collective attention and resources flow effortlessly into immediate entertainment — sports, cinema, and social media reels. Yet, the foundational pillars of our future, specifically food and energy security, rarely occupy the mainstream spotlight. Instead, these vital subjects remain confined to academic papers and institutional workshops, leaving the average citizen as a passive spectator. As an end-user and a farmer, I felt the need to study this and make small notes for both common citizens and top policymakers.

To keep it light, I plan to write about 15 blogs under each category (energy sources and their delivery to loads), seeking expert views and critiques, and then make a summary. The approach will be Problem-Cause-Solution, with only essential data and references.

This series will explore present and future energy sources in dedicated posts. I believe this will present a unified and comprehensive picture to non-experts and citizens who are directly affected by energy issues in their daily lives. Interestingly, I could not find such a compilation online or within a single book. While I do not claim these posts to be exhaustive, I would be glad to receive corrections and comments. My plan is to publish blogs covering the following topics, gradually taking readers from the broader energy scenario to my central theme: “Without energy security, food security remains vulnerable; without backward integration, both remain incomplete.”

1. Why Energy Security Matters.
2. India’s Energy Reality.
3. Oil and Natural Gas: Energy Vulnerability.
4. Coal and Coal Gasification: Problem or Lifeline?
5. Hydroelectric (Large and Small) and Pumped Storage Projects (PSP)
6. Nuclear Energy: Promise and Limits.
7. The Solar Revolution and Its Challenges + Agrivoltaics and Others (Wind, Tides, Geothermal).
8. The Electric Grid and Distribution Network: A Grand Engineering Feat.
9. Railways — The Single Biggest Energy Load: A Marvel of Electrification.
10. Bio-fuels and Ethanol: The Conflict with Food.
11. Energy Storage Options (LiFePO4 Batteries, Hydrogen, Hydro-Pumped Storage, etc.).
12. Food Security: The Realities of Farming in India.
13. Backward Integration: The Forgotten Strategy.
14. Can India Become Truly Self-Reliant? A Peep into the Future.
15. A Summary for Top Leaders and Policymakers

The purpose of this series is not advocacy, but awakening. It aims to spark an informed, national dialogue on the very forces that will shape the trajectory of India’s future. Brilliant minds and strategists in government establishments and its research labs are already working on these issues, yet the wider public remains strangely detached from the discourse. It is time to bring the true stakeholders on board. Hope this series will help all citizens to get real the picture of the entire energy spectrum at one spot.

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

Cheers,
MGK