Government schools across India are grappling to find alternative sources to LPG to sustain midday meals even as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Friday that global food prices climbed in March to their highest level since September last year and could rise further if the Middle East conflict that has pushed up energy prices continues.
According to government data, close to 11.8 to 12 crore children in India rely on midday meals for their nutrition.
And the world’s largest school feeding scheme is suffering at the grassroot level.
Among several rural schools, the Mitrasen Pur village of Pura block in Ayodhya district has already started witnessing a noticeable decline in the laughter and chatter of children arriving for school as attendances continue falling, Khabar Lahariya, a grassroots newspaper run by marginalized women, reported.
At the local primary school, where the midday meal was the only dependable source of nutrition for 60 children, the energy crisis has cast a shadow over the mid-day table, leaving these young minds, mostly from economically disadvantaged families, to bear the burden.
Lunch tables remain empty because without LPG cylinders in the kitchen cooking steaming dal, rice and vegetables is an arduous task.
Khabar Lahariya reported that the midday meal has not been cooked for a week, with children now being given soaked chickpeas or biscuits. Sometimes, they are being sent back home.
Uttar Pradesh is not an outlier. The ongoing LPG crunch has disrupted the supply chain for gas cylinders used in school kitchens with many village schools in Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha reportedly resorting to firewood.
At Krishnachandrapur High School in South 24 Parganas in Bengal, authorities had stocked firewood as an alternative fuel after anticipating a shortage of LPG cylinders.
On March 11, the midday meal for around 1,500 students was cooked on traditional clay ovens using firewood after the school failed to receive gas supplies, headmaster Chandan Maiti told PTI.
However, the challenge extends far beyond gas shortages as rising prices of food grains, pulses, and other essential commodities have made a dent in schools’ nutrition budgets.
India is not alone.
"Price rises since the conflict began have been modest, driven mainly by higher oil prices and cushioned by ample global cereal supplies," FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said in a statement.
But if the conflict lasts over 40 days and input costs remain high, farmers may reduce inputs, plant less, or switch crops to less intensive fertiliser crops, he said.
"Those choices will hit future yields and shape our food supply and commodity prices for the rest of this year and all of the next," he added.
The FAO Food Price Index, which measures changes in a basket of globally traded food commodities, rose by 2.4 per cent from its revised February level. It is 1 per cent above its value a year ago, although nearly 20 per cent below its March 2022 peak, reached after the start of the war in Ukraine.
Global maize prices edged up as ample global supply offset concerns over fertiliser costs, and indirect support from greater ethanol demand prospects linked to higher energy prices.
Rice prices dropped 3 per cent due to harvest timing and weaker import demand.
Vegetable oil prices increased 5.1 per cent, marking the third consecutive monthly rise. Sugar prices jumped 7.2 per cent in March to their highest since October 2025, as higher crude oil prices drove expectations that Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter, would channel more sugarcane into producing ethanol.