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 cancers, immune deficits, and growth impairment in vulnerable populations, and are associated with spoilage…

Kavya Krishnan, a Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) scholar studying crop and soil sciences, co-authored a chapter on soil health assessment that appears in Soil Analysis: Recent Trends and Applications. Published by Springer, the book provides a synopsis of the analytical procedures used for soil analysis and is intended to help students, teachers, soil scientists, and laboratory technicians increase their…

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 staple grains, like rice and wheat, combined with stubbornly high poverty rates, leaves many people’s diets lacking…

The coronavirus pandemic will have a disparate effect on women in developing countries, says Shubh Swain, Tata-Cornell Institute gender and nutrition specialist and assistant director of Technical Assistance and Research for Indian Nutrition and Agriculture. Writing for LiveMint, Swain argues that cultural and socio-economic factors in resource-constrained countries will cause women to feel the brunt of COVID-19 and…

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) has published its 2019-20 Annual Report. The report features updates on research and activities from the past year, as well as information regarding upcoming projects. “I am delighted with the progress that TCI has made over the past seven years, and I am excited about the contributions that…

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 TCI’s book, Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India. In India, as in the rest of the world, climate change…

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 undernutrition. Many impoverished farming households in the country raise goats and other small…

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 throughout India. It was the start of India’s “internet revolution,” which brought with it extremely low prices, especially…

In this blog post, TCI scholar Shiuli Vanaja discusses her research on how access to clean water at home affects women’s productivity and use of time. Many people don’t give their drinking water a second thought. They simply turn on a tap or open a bottle. Yet, 29% of the global population lives without access to clean,…

In the effort to improve nutrition in developing countries, women’s empowerment in agriculture is a pathway that has gained considerable traction. In smallholder-farming households, the thinking goes that the more that women are empowered to make agriculture-related decisions, the more power they have to choose to grow, buy, and consume diverse, nutritious foods. The Tata-Cornell…