Abstract The realization that economic growth is a necessary but insufficient condition for improving the nutritional status has led to a paradigm shift in addressing malnutrition through nutrition-sensitive development. Biofortification is one such nutrition-sensitive food system intervention designed to supply crucial micronutrients through staple diets...

TCI’s 2022 report on Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition in Bihar (FAN-Bihar) provides a detailed reassessment of the food system approach for achieving the 2nd Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) — zero hunger by 2030 — in Bihar. The report emphasizes the high rates of malnutrition in...

A new initiative at the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) will chart a path for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture while meeting the nutritional demands of growing populations. The two-year research project will develop accurate…

A trio of TCI researchers writing in The Print argued that the farm waste fires contributing to dangerously high air pollution in North India can best be addressed by incentivizing farmers in the region to grow less rice. Director Prabhu…

India’s plan to increase domestic production of palm oil could have detrimental effects on the environment and farmer livelihoods, argue Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) researcher Payal Seth and Associate Director Bhaskar Mittra in a Financial Express op-ed.…

On June 2, 2021, the Indian government announced a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for several key sectors of the economy. Under this scheme, the fuel companies will be required to sell gasoline containing up to 20 percent ethanol by 2023, with the view to reduce dependency on oil imports and lower carbon dioxide emissions in cities. (Ethanol adds extra oxygen to petrol which lowers the emission of harmful gases and is shown to significantly reduce air pollution.) This target implies that India will need 1,000 crore liters of ethanol against the nation’s current capacity of 684 crore liters.

The Indian government’s plan to incentivize sugarcane production to boost the supply of fuel-grade ethanol could hurt efforts to improve nutrition outcomes in the country, according to researchers from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). In an op-ed…

In Pandemic Prices: Price Shocks from COVID-19 and Their Implications on Nutrition Security in India, TCI researchers assess the impact that India’s COVID-19 lockdown had on Indian food prices. They demonstrate that the lockdown disrupted the supply chains for some foods more than others, driving up...

TCi intern Alex King spent the summer in Mumbai researching and advancing TCi’s understanding of the iron-fortified food market. TCi is working to develop new products, partnerships and/or opportunities for promoting iron-fortified foods for rural and urban India. As of…

In this blog post, TCI’s Payal Seth, Prabhu Pingali, and Bhaskar Mittra present their analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on food prices in India.  In normal times, access to nutrient-rich food to all is a challenge for…