Every day, India’s Kisan Call Centers field thousands of calls from farmers seeking information or advice from agricultural extension agents. Do all those calls add up to improved outcomes on the farm? New research from an alumnus of the Tata-Cornell…

Abstract We examine the influence of information access on seasonal paddy yields in 10 selected Indian states using decade-long (2009–2019) data from the Government of India’s Kisan (farmers) call center (KCC) initiative. Based on 17 million farmers’ queries at the KCC, we isolate two most frequent...

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) has published its 2024–25 Annual Report. The report offers an in-depth look at the full range of TCI’s research and other activities, including grant-funded projects like the Zero-Hunger, Zero-Carbon Food Systems project…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer confined to labs and tech hubs. Today, it is transforming agriculture—tailoring weather advice for farmers and spotting pests before they decimate crops. As IBM defines it, AI is “technology that enables computers and machines…

Along India’s eastern coastline in late January, the small coastal communities of Odisha are busy with preparations for the upcoming shrimp farming season. I recently interviewed around 625 shrimp farmers across five districts in the state, gaining insights into their…

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) has published its 2023–24 Annual Report. The report offers an in-depth look at the full range of TCI’s research and other activities, including projects like Zero-Hunger, Zero-Carbon Food Systems, and field research…

Sitting in the coastal village of Inchudi in the Baleshwar district of Odisha, India, I spoke with Raju (name changed), a generational shrimp farmer with over 20 years of experience, about the precipitous rise of shrimp aquaculture in his village…

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…

Before planning your week, it is probably not unusual for you to check the weather forecast on your smartphone. For a farmer in a rural developing economy, however, weather news is more likely to come from the TV, radio, or…

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…