Skip to main content

Cornell University

Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition

Tag: Markets & Value Chains

A husband and wife shop in the produce section of a supermarket

Do Supermarkets Help India’s Small Farmers? It Depends.

When supermarkets first began spreading across India, they brought hope that smallholder farmers could make more money by selling them fresh, high-quality produce. Decades later, has that benefit materialized? New research from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI)…

Determinants and Income Effects of Small Farmers Selling to Supermarkets versus Traditional Market Channels in Four Regions of India

Abstract Using endogenous switching regressions to calculate transitional heterogeneity which we have used to build counterfactual scenarios to identify the treatment effects for both sellers to supermarkets and sellers to traditional markets, the results support neither a sharp inclusion nor a sharp exclusion story, but...
Pallavi Rajkhowa taking notes at a soybean warehouse

FPOs Would Get Boost from Centralized Database

India is betting big on farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to boost its agricultural sector and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, but its efforts would be enhanced by the creation of a centralized system of tracking FPOs, according to the…

Identifying the Number of FPOs Promoted in India

This special policy brief provides an estimate of the number of active farmer producer organizations (FPOs) promoted in India from 2003 to 2024 and makes the case for a centralized system for tracking FPOs. A system to identify and track FPO promotion and performance in...
A farmer looks at the FPO database on her computer

How Many FPOs Are There in India? How We Counted the Number of Farmer Producer Organizations

Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) have the potential to significantly aid smallholder agricultural development through the power of aggregation. In India, where most farms are smaller than a hectare, well-functioning FPOs can boost farm incomes through better market linkages and increased…
Cornell insignia

Essays in Agriculture Economics, Climate Change, and Nutrition

Abstract The dissertation consists of three essays in the field of agriculture economics, climate change, and nutrition. I have structured it as three chapters, namely ‘Fertilization Impact Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide On Agricultural Yield’, ‘Are Production And Consumption Decisions Independent? Identifying Separability In Indian Agriculture’,...
Cornell insignia

The State of Food Loss Along Perishable Vegetable Supply Chains

Abstract This research was done in the context of tomato supply chains in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad city, Telangana. The study aims were (1) to examine the extent, stages and determinants of food loss along tomato supply chains from farmer to retail; (2)...
Bowls of millets and millet flour on a blue tarp

Millets Are Key to Making the PDS Environmentally Friendly

In 2021–22, India spent US$17.4 billion on the Public Distribution System, or PDS. For a program that ensures food security for over 800 million people, that seems like a good bargain. However, new research on the hidden costs of the…

Reducing the True Cost of Food-Based Safety Nets: Evidence from India’s Subsidized Food Program

Abstract Public procurement of food plays a pivotal role in determining the production and consumption of various food items. This is particularly true for staple grains in countries such as India, where the government procures over 40 percent of rice and wheat. This grain is...
Pearl millet

Op-Ed Makes the Case for Millets in the PDS

The Indian government can help to ensure that nutritious millets are accessible for all Indians by promoting their inclusion in the Public Distribution System (PDS), researchers from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) argue in a new op-ed…