Tag: fieldwork
Quality or quantity? Defining food loss and waste along the fruit and vegetable value chain
The FAO estimates that “one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally” (FAO, 2011). As I went about my summer exploratory work on food loss in India, I spent time reflecting on how ‘food loss and…
In a social marketing scheme to promote flour fortification, relationships and demographics matter
In previous blogs, we described the accomplishments and challenges associated with the implementation of Phase-I of the Sustainable Flour Fortification Initiative (branded as “SFurtI”). This led to a very important research question: why do some people choose to buy (and…
Video Coverage for 2017 Annual Celebration
At the end of each year, the Tata-Cornell Institute holds a special event to publically report on our research findings as well as to share project updates from our field locations in India. We also launch our Annual Report. The…
Call for Applications: Tata-Cornell Summer Internship
The Tata-Cornell Institute is actively recruiting graduate students for the 2018 Summer Internship Program. This is a 6-8 week professional development and research-oriented opportunity for students interested in issues related to food policy, agriculture & nutrition, and rural development in…
Is my time the same as your time? A note on the concept of time in Indian villages
Many of us conducting research in development economics deal with different types of data sets for our analysis. We generally have two options for empirical research in development economics: either we can use available secondary data sources, or we can…
Bridging the gap: Soil health in Ithaca and India, from lab to field to lab
Bihar, 2018:
The thick fog blanketed the city making it impossible to see any of the buildings down below. I’d been warned of the trouble with fog in the northern part of India but the inability to see anything beyond…
Making adolescent girls a priority, not an afterthought, in the global health debate
“In global health, we talk a lot about neglected diseases like onchocerciasis and schistosomiasis—serious ailments that most people have never heard of. But a condition that everybody is perfectly aware of, malnutrition, may be the most neglected health problem in…
Can social marketing be a path towards improved nutrition?
The Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) has been running an iron flour fortification program in a tribal community in Gujarat. It uses the principles of social marketing to generate awareness about the importance of iron and other micronutrients, and consequentially aims to…
Farmers’ decision making and perceived benefits of orange-fleshed sweet potato adoption
“He says orange-fleshed sweet potato has made his family healthier,” my translator, Shaktikar says as I scribble notes in a small notebook. I make sure not to disturb the iPhone pointed towards the farmer we’re interviewing. It is recording every…
Interacting with value chain actors: What to do when your research subjects have work to do
Levels of food loss are product and value chain specific. An important first step in determining methods and metrics to evaluate food loss of perishables was to identify the product (or products) and map the value chains. The objective of…