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, H1N1, Swine flu, Ebola and the Nipah virus, which impacted human health and livelihoods, have come about…

“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 by a thatched roof. I was baffled to see the…

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 activity is periodically broken up by a crash of empty crates tossed to the ground. Men…

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 Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) researchers investigate how farm production diversity and…

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 popular methods used for empowering women and lifting them out of poverty. This is particularly…

Expanded opportunities are possible for smallholder farmers in India if the right policies are enacted in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, TCI Director Prabhu Pingali said during “COVID-19: Impacts and New Normal in Agriculture,” an online forum hosted on June 5 by the Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The theme of the event was re-envisioning…

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 challenge has only grown. In response to the coronavirus pandemic…

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 fortified with iron, a mineral that performs a critical function in the human…

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 role nutritious foods play in human health. Dig a little deeper,…

TCI Director Prabhu Pingali will speak about food security in India during The Economic Times Edge’s Virtual Ag Tech Summit 2020. Pingali is scheduled to speak on June 4 at 4 p.m. IST/6:30 a.m. EDT. The theme of the summit is “Envisioning Business Growth: Disruptive Technologies: IN and POST COVID Era.” The summit was created by The…