TCI Blog

Thinking About Soil from the Farmers’ Perspectives

Posted on April 8, 2021

In this blog post, TCI Scholar Natasha Jha reflects on her experience interviewing Indian farmers about how they determine the health and quality of their soil. Good, healthy soils are not only critical for crop production, they are also crucial for good nutrition. So… Read more

Conducting Research through Mobile Phones in a Pandemic

Posted on March 30, 2021

In this blog post, TCI scholar Vanisha Sharma discusses her plans to use mobile phone surveys to safely conduct field research in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the face of field research in the era of mobile phones and int… Read more

What Makes a Good Tomato? Unpacking Tomato Quality Attributes in South India

Posted on December 17, 2020

In this blog post, TCI Scholar Jocelyn Boiteau explores the various attributes different supply chain actors used to judge the quality of tomatoes. Walking into a daily vegetable market in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, tomato vendors sit next to neatly organized pyr… Read more

Ending Open Defecation: My Sanitation Story

Posted on November 18, 2020

In this blog post, Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) consultant Payal Seth reflects on her study of open defecation and toilet usage in rural India. Out of the 892 million people across the world who practice open defecation, the majority live in India. Most reside in the co… Read more

COVID-19 Pandemic Presents Opportunities for Innovation

Posted on August 18, 2020

In this blog post, TCI associate director Bhaskar Mittra discusses the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for innovation along India’s agricultural supply chains that can benefit farmers and consumers alike. The COVID-19 pandemic has o… Read more

The Map to Zero Hunger: Mapping Cropping Systems for a Tailored Approach to Increasing Productivity and Incomes

Posted on July 23, 2020

In this blog post, Kiera Crowley, co-author of Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition in India 2020, discusses how she created a cropping systems map for the report and why the cropping systems approach is important for improving agricultural productivity in India. As pre… Read more

How Will Reverse Migration Affect Agriculture and What Can the Government Do?

Posted on July 22, 2020

In this blog post, TCI associate director Bhaskar Mittra explores how the return home of millions of migrant workers during India’s COVID-19 lockdown will impact rural agriculture and how the Indian government can mitigate its negative consequences. With the onset… Read more

10 Key Findings from TCI’s Report on Ending Hunger in India

Posted on July 15, 2020

TCI’s latest report, Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition in India 2020: Leveraging Agriculture to Achieve Zero Hunger (FAN 2020), focuses on the extent of hunger and malnutrition in India in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2), which calls for zero hun… Read more

Pandemics and Food Systems – Towards a Proactive Food Safety Approach to Disease Prevention & Management

Posted on July 14, 2020

In this blog post, which originally appeared as an op-ed piece in Food Security, TCI alumna Anaka Aiyar and director Prabhu Pingali advocate for investments in food safety as part of the response to COVID-19. Abstract Recent large-scale pandemics such as the covid19,… Read more

Participatory Research: Re-Envisioning the Role of the Farmer in Local Food Safety Innovation

Posted on July 7, 2020

“What happened to it?” I asked one woman after she reported that the hermetic (air-tight) grain sack we had given her wasn’t being used in her storage facility. She grinned sheepishly. A giggling daughter guided us through the courtyard and gestured to a corner shaded b… Read more

Balancing Act: Trade-Offs Between Food Loss Reduction and Tomato Labor Drudgery

Posted on June 29, 2020

In this blog post, TCI scholar Jocelyn Boiteau explores how the plastic crates used to protect tomatoes at the market carry occupational risks for laborers. In Andhra Pradesh’s bustling Madanapalle tomato market, where tomatoes are auctioned in bulk, the buzz of ac… Read more

Improving Dietary Diversity through Market Access, Livestock, and Women’s Education

Posted on June 24, 2020

In developing countries like India, people in rural areas often subsist on diets of mostly cereal grains which lack important micronutrients, leading to a range of maladies, including anemia, stunting, low birth weight, and more. In a newly published article in the F… Read more

Gone Fishing: Women’s Self-Help Groups and Community Aquaculture in Odisha

Posted on June 16, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report explores TCI scholar Anshuman Gupta’s study of a community-based aquaculture program in India. Download the full annual report to read more. Across India, organizing women into self-help groups has been one of the more p… Read more

How Did COVID-19 Impact India’s Food Prices?

Posted on June 12, 2020

In this blog post, TCI’s Payal Seth, Prabhu Pingali, and Bhaskar Mittra present their analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on food prices in India. In normal times, access to nutrient-rich food to all is a challenge for India. In the midst of a pandemic, that c… Read more

Biorefinery to Kitchen: Addressing Iron Deficiency Using Microalgae-Fortified Flour

Posted on June 10, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Rohil Bhatnagar’s efforts to fortify wheat flour using iron from microalgae. Download the full annual report to read more. Few foods are as appealing as freshly made roti. What if that roti were fortif… Read more

The Nutrients Beneath Our Feet: Understanding the Soil-Human Health Connection

Posted on June 3, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Fatma Rekik’s research on the impact soil health has on human health via nutrition. Download the full annual report to read more. You are what you eat. It’s a commonly heard saying that synthesizes the r… Read more

Tomato Trouble: Estimating and Understanding Food Loss in Vegetable Supply Chains

Posted on May 27, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Jocelyn Boiteau’s study of quality and quantity food loss in tomato supply chains in India. Download the full annual report to read more. The loss of fruit and vegetables—damaged during transport or l… Read more

Migration Mess: Using a Food Systems Lens to Understand India’s Migrant Crisis after COVID-19

Posted on May 21, 2020

In this blog post, Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) postdoctoral associate Anaka Aiyar draws lessons about migrants in India from TCI’s book, Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India, and applies them to the migration plight precipitated by the coronavirus pande… Read more

Those Left Behind: Understanding the Effects of Internal Male Migration on Women’s Participation in Agriculture

Posted on May 19, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Vidya Bharathi Rajkumar’s research on the impact of male migration on women’s roles in agriculture. Download the full annual report to read more. Across the developing world, hundreds of millions of… Read more

Power Puffs: Creating Nutritious Puffed Snacks for Toddlers

Posted on May 12, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report presents TCI scholar Bindvi Arora’s use of a novel food extrusion technology to create more nutritious puffed snacks for toddlers. Download the full annual report to read more. In recent years, parents have increasingly… Read more

Managing Mycotoxins: Reducing the Nutritional and Socioeconomic Burdens of Unsafe Food

Posted on May 6, 2020

This piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report explores TCI scholar Anthony Wenndt’s research on managing and mitigating fungal toxins in grain stores. Download the full annual report to read more. Exposure to fungal toxins, or mycotoxins, in the diet can lead to canc… Read more

Sweet Nutrition: Addressing Micronutrient Deficiencies through Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes

Posted on April 28, 2020

In this piece from the TCI 2019-20 Annual Report, TCI scholar Kathryn Merckel’s research on the introduction of vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweet potatoes is presented. Download the full annual report to read more. The Indian food system’s heavy focus on st… Read more

Tackling India’s Food Systems Challenges in the Era of Climate Change

Posted on April 10, 2020

In this blog post, TCI postdoctoral associate Anaka Aiyar and former communications and outreach manager Jessica Ames present the “technology-plus” approach for dealing with India’s food systems challenges in the midst of climate change, as proposed in the… Read more

Cash to Mouth: Exploring the Income Pathway to Improved Nutrition

Posted on April 3, 2020

In this blog post, TCI Scholar Anna David Thottappilly discusses her research on the effectiveness of programs that aim to improve nutrition outcomes through income enhancement. In India, an animal as small as a goat can be a key part of the fight against undernutritio… Read more

Are India’s Farmers Taking Advantage of Web-based Technology?

Posted on March 25, 2020

In this blog post, TCI scholar Vanisha Sharma investigates how farmers in India’s impoverished rural areas are using the internet to boost agricultural productivity. Beginning in 2016, a public-private partnership called Jio laid 250,000 km of fiber optic cable th… Read more

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