It’s nearly noon and the sun hangs directly overhead. The intense heat makes it tough for Shanta to continue carrying her two-gallon water container. Her colleagues face the same struggle. This is their third day working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which provides at least 100 days of paid work…

The Indian government can help to ensure that nutritious millets are accessible for all Indians by promoting their inclusion in the Public Distribution System (PDS), researchers from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) argue in a new op-ed published in the Hindustan Times. In the op-ed, TCI Director Prabhu Pingali and Research Associate…

Millets contribute to achieving six of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals for 2030: zero hunger, good health and well-being, decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production, climate change, and life on land. In India, the gradual disappearance of millets from diets has intensified nutritional inadequacies while making cropping patterns unsustainable and increasing the…

“How many FPOs are there in India?” This seemingly simple question marked the beginning of an unexpected challenge when I began working on the Tata-Cornell Institute’s project on FPO-Led Small Farm Market Access Models in 2019. Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) are collaborative entities that unite small and marginal farmers, enabling them to pool resources and…

Sitting in the coastal village of Inchudi in the Baleshwar district of Odisha, India, I spoke with Raju (name changed), a generational shrimp farmer with over 20 years of experience, about the precipitous rise of shrimp aquaculture in his village and the challenges he and other farmers face. “Shrimp farming feels easy and profitable, until…

Late last year, TCI published a report examining the state of food systems in South Asia. Part of a series produced by the Institute, Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition in South Asia: Building Healthy, Sustainable Food Systems (FAN-South Asia) explores trends in agricultural production, nutrition, and food consumption across the region, offering a range of policy…

A panel of experts from Cornell University will explore the trends and challenges facing South Asian food systems at a special event launching the Tata-Cornell Institute’s new report on Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition in South Asia on Thursday, April 18, at 3 p.m. EDT in Warren Hall B73. The latest in TCI’s FAN series, the…

“A lack of dynamism in varietal change in food crop production represents a wasted opportunity that is potentially high, exacting a heavy toll on poor producers and consumers alike.” –Thomas S. Walker and Jeffrey Alwang Crop Improvement, Adoption and Impact of Improved Varieties in Food Crops in Sub-Saharan Africa Historically, shifting to improved varieties played…

Digital payment platforms have emerged as an integral component of modern India’s financial landscape. These platforms offer convenient and quick ways for individuals and businesses to complete cash-free transactions.  From the user-friendly interfaces of mobile wallets to the innovative simplicity of Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based apps, these platforms continually refine our transactional experiences, allowing for…

For my doctoral dissertation, I ventured into the field to explore the role that women’s empowerment in agriculture can play in determining their iron status. In addition to collection of survey data on agriculture, empowerment, and other socioeconomic variables, blood draws for iron biomarkers formed a major component of my fieldwork. Seeking and processing blood…