Field-based study is the cornerstone of the research agenda of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), rooting its work in the real world and ensuring that it can be impactful for the communities involved. So, when COVID-19 spread across the globe and the world ground to a halt, Vanisha Sharma’s plans for a…

Amid India’s efforts to provide its growing populace with nutritious foods, increasing agricultural production is paramount. A new study by Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) alumnus Chanchal Pramanik identifies India’s agricultural “hotspots,” districts with high crop yields. Lessons from those hotspots can potentially help increase production in low-yield areas. In a paper published…

Women want to work. They want to step outside the house, earn an income, and feel the quiet satisfaction of being independent, of taking pride in something that is theirs. Even a small earning carries meaning: the ability to contribute to household expenses, to buy gifts for the children, to feel that one belongs to…

Two graduating scholars from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) were recognized during commencement ceremonies at Cornell University on May 22 and 23. Sumedha Minocha graduated with a Ph.D. in applied economics and management from the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Bharath Chandran C graduated with an M.P.S. in global development from…

In late February, we set out to explore five food value chains as part of TCI’s Promoting Value Chains for Climate Resilience and Nutritious Diets project, which aims to assess the challenges facing different value chains and recommend appropriate solutions. Over the next two months, we interviewed producers, aggregators, processors, researchers, and government officials to…

Farmer producer organization (FPO) growth is at its highest rate ever. An explosive 35,332 farmer producer companies (FPCs) have been promoted over the last five years, and annual agricultural producer cooperative (APC) promotion is at 6,000 cooperatives a year, the highest 10-year average in its 125-year history. New government investment has made FPOs a central…

Two decades ago, the story of food in India was easy to understand. A large share of household budgets went toward food, and most of that food was cereals. Rice or wheat anchored every meal. Diets were repetitive, shaped by necessity more than preference. Today, that world has changed. The share of income spent on…

Self-help groups (SHGs) have been a source of women’s empowerment and livelihood development across India. SHGs are a small collection of individuals who meet and work together to encourage savings, provide microcredit, and promote entrepreneurship amongst members. However, the literature shows that for India’s female farmers, access to microcredit often falls short in providing the…

A plate of rice with greens may look simple, or even nutritionally limited, to an outside observer. But spend a morning with women farmers in eastern India and that modest plate begins to tell a deeper story. It reflects rain-dependent agriculture, seasonal crops and the everyday labor that sustains rural households. In villages across Jharkhand…

The Farmer Producer Organization Platform for India, the only comprehensive database of Indian farmer producer organizations (FPOs), will be transferred to India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare under an agreement with the platform’s creator, the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). The platform features a data dashboard with information on more than 260,000…