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Cornell University

Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition

Tag: Agricultural Transformation, Food Systems & Nutrition Transition

A woman carrying wood from a forest in Thuamul Rampur. (Photo by Amrutha Jose Pampackal/TCI)

Are Forests Still Relevant for the Nutrition Security of Traditional Forest Dwellers? Insights from One Year of Fieldwork in Kalahandi, Odisha

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…
A buffalo on a tea estate

The Battle for Space: Human vs Animal

“They [wild animals] want the best and the most expensive tea leaves,” remarked a tea estate staffer during my visit to an estate in The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. While the purpose of my visit was to primarily understand the adoption…

Are the Lessons from the Green Revolution Relevant for Agricultural Growth and Food Security in the Twenty-First Century?

In Jonna P. Estudillo, Yoko Kijima, and Tetsushi Tenobe (Eds.), Agricultural Development in Asia and Africa: Essays in Honor of Keijiro Otsuka, Springer 2023
Close-up of a cashier's hands using a POS machine

Environmental and Health Effects Add Billions in Hidden Costs to India’s Public Distribution System

Through the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Indian government ensures the food security of its most impoverished citizens. However, new research from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) reveals that the production of food grain for the PDS…

Revealing the Hidden Production Costs of India’s Public Distribution System

This policy brief presents preliminary estimates of the environmental and health-related costs associated with the production of food grain for India’s Public Distribution System (PDS), a program that provides subsidized food to more than 800 million Indians. This new analysis provides government policymakers, advocates, and...
People purchasing grain from a shop

New Project Will Reveal True Cost of India’s Food Subsidies

Each year, India spends tens of billions of dollars on the Public Distribution System (PDS), a food subsidy program that helps to ensure the food security of more than 800 million people. The largest such program in the world, the…
Kiera Crowley interviewing farmers

What’s Driving Crop Diversification? Talking to Farmers in Bihar

After arriving in Sadaivigha village in Lakhisarai, Bihar, on a hot day in June, Anurag and I followed a field technician, Abhay, to the farmhouse where we would conduct our first focus group discussion of the day. It was my…
A woman standing in a field

Asia’s Food Systems Transformation: How It Happened and What Comes Next

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.…