Not so long ago, famines were a recurrent feature in Asia, with many dying from chronic hunger and poverty. The continent’s swing from deficiency to self-sufficiency in food did not happen unaided; it was thanks to policy and technology interventions. Will the same approach work for Asia’s current and future food system challenges, like malnutrition,…

Public plant breeding programs play a central role in tackling local food security challenges around the world, but how can we be sure that they are operating effectively and optimally at the institutional level? In this blog series, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement’s (ILCI) institutional capacity team explores how they came…

Nutrition doesn’t depend only on the type of food you eat. It is influenced by a complex network of factors, including soil, according to new research from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Soil Science, TCI alumna Fatma Rekik and faculty fellow Harold van…

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are beginning a new phase of their partnership to expand and improve the District-Level Database for Indian Agriculture and Allied Sectors. The open-access platform database will feature more up-to-date data and additional variables related to nutrition,…

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) has published its 2021-22 Annual Report. The report offers an in-depth look at the full range of TCI’s research and other activities, including a look back at its signature project, Technical Assistance and Research for Indian Nutrition and Agriculture (TARINA). The report also features a peek at new projects like…

The Tata-Cornell Institute’s (TCI) efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of Indian agriculture garnered the attention of national news media this week, with the Times of India reporting on a recent workshop held in Patna, Bihar. Organized by TCI and the Asian Development Research Institute’s Centre for Studies on Environment and Climate, the workshop brought…

As demand for high-value, diverse agricultural products rises throughout the developing world, smallholder farmers face pressure to either commercialize or exit the farm sector altogether. Farmers that can scale up their operations have a significant opportunity to improve their livelihoods. According to a study from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), a new…

This blog post is part of a series exploring India’s small farm aggregation landscape using TCI’s Database for Indian Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). Part of the FPO Hub within the TCI Center of Excellence, the first-of-its-kind database brings together comprehensive data on FPOs in India. The FPO Hub and this research were made possible through…

As countries around the world have urbanized rapidly over the past fifty years, infrastructure construction, particularly in the Global South, has struggled to keep pace. Many urban dwellers rely on sanitation systems that fail to adequately treat human waste, harming the environment and placing significant economic burdens on low-income households, who must often pay for…

A growing public health concern across Southeast Asia is groundwater contamination, specifically from heavy metals such as arsenic. Given the significant adverse health impacts, it is important from a policy perspective to determine the causes of such contamination. I am conducting research exploring a novel link between agricultural practices and groundwater arsenic contamination in India….