As a young girl, Soumya Gupta would accompany her father to the hospital, where he worked as a doctor. The image of impoverished women waiting for healthcare services in long queues impacted her deeply. She decided that one day, she would do something to improve public health services for women like them. In graduate school,…

Three TCI scholars received their degrees during commencement ceremonies at Cornell University on Saturday, May 27. Natasha Jha and Anna David Thottappilly each received PhDs in applied economics and management from the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Tanuj Chawla received an MPS in information science from the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing…

Researchers from universities and research institutions across the world traveled to Cornell University last week to take part in the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) 10th Anniversary Conference. The theme of the conference was “Food, Environment, and Health—Global Evidence.” A total of 30 scholars presented their research during the two-day conference on May…

Banning alcohol may be an effective tool for curbing violent crimes, according to a forthcoming study coauthored by a group of researchers including Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) Scholar Natasha Jha. The study, which is due to be published in the July 2024 issue of the journal Economic Development and Cultural Change, examines the experience of Bihar,…

In a recent visit to Latur, a district in Maharashtra, India, we gained an understanding of the marketing channels and infrastructure available for local soybean producers. In India, Latur is a significant agricultural hub for soybean cultivation, with the second-highest acreage dedicated to soybean production after Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Soybean cultivation accounts for approximately…

Forests have garnered a lot of attention in international policy discussions in recent years because of their role in addressing the rising challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change. Less discussed is the importance of forests for the sustainability of many local food systems. Across the globe, billions of people live in proximity to forests…

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) published a special magazine titled, TCI at 10: A Decade of Transforming Food Systems for the Future. The magazine features an in-depth look at the different sides of TCI’s work and its accomplishments from its first decade. It also includes a…

After working on field-based research projects in rural India for more than five years, Anaka Aiyar’s career took a new turn when she moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in economics at the University of California. Driven by a passion for positively impacting the lives of underprivileged people, she later joined the…

This is the first in a series of blog posts exploring the experiences of farmer producer organizations (FPOs) and FPO promotion in India and Latin America. The next post will examine soy bean value chains and FPOs in Maharashtra, India. Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) are the latest iteration in the long history of small farm…

Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) Scholar Shree Saha and her team took home the award for market readiness at the 2023 Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture Hackathon on March 20. Saha’s team developed a platform, called TransportX, that would help smallholder farmers in India bring their products to market. The app connects farmers with potential buyers, then…