A Fulbright Fellow from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore is visiting the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) at Cornell University this year. Gopi Sankar Gopikuttan will attend classes and study under TCI Director Prabhu Pingali during the 2021-22 academic year. A doctoral student studying public policy, Gopikuttan is continuing his research while…

Fatma Rekik, an alumna of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), is the recipient of the 2021 Truog Soil Science Outstanding Dissertation Award. Presented by the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), the award recognizes a recent PhD recipient who has made outstanding contributions to soil science as evidenced by their thesis or…

In an effort to empower India’s 125 million smallholder farms to take advantage of growing opportunities in the agricultural sector, the Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) for Agriculture and Nutrition launched a Hub for Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) within its Center of Excellence in New Delhi. The Hub features a first-of-its-kind Database of Indian FPOs. Created with…

Obesity is on the rise in India, and a new front in the struggle to improve nutrition in the country of 1.36 billion people has emerged. New research from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) sheds light on the patterns of obesity within India, underscoring the need for policies and programs that consider…

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) will hold a virtual event celebrating the launch of the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) Hub within its Center of Excellence on Wednesday, September 1, at 8 a.m. EDT/5:30 p.m. IST. The event will be live-streamed at facebook.com/tatacornellinstitute and features a panel of experts from the government, the…

Soil degradation, resulting from poor land management practices such as the overuse of fertilizers, can worsen farm productivity. Yet, across India, efforts to improve soil quality have focused almost exclusively on chemical properties, ignoring the physical and biological processes that make soils dynamic and complex living systems.

In a normal summer, Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) interns travel to rural India to work on research projects in the field. But with COVID-19 putting fieldwork on hold, interns Francesca DiGiorgio and Bhavna Sivasubramanian spent the summer of 2021 in TCI’s office at Cornell University, digging through data related to India’s agricultural markets. A graduate student…

Ensuring good nutrition during weaning can help set a child on the path of good health and development. Yet, when it comes time to wean babies from breast milk or formula, many parents reach for puffed cereal snacks that, while convenient, offer little nutritional benefit at a time when children’s protein requirement is at its peak.

TCI is exploring an innovative approach to curbing iron deficiency by fortifying wheat flour using a byproduct of the biofuel industry. Widely consumed and available through India’s Public Distribution System, wheat flour is an ideal vehicle for fortification.

In November 2020, tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, flooded the streets of New Delhi holding signs that read “No Farmer No Food” and chanting “Dharti Mata Ki Jai.” Makeshift camps lined the outskirts of the city where food was cooked over small gas fires and nights were spent sleeping on…