Internship Report

Based on the internship undertaken at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research
(1st May 31st June, 2014)

Internship Report prepared and submitted to The Symbiosis School of Economics, in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of a Masters degree in Economics.

SrijanaChandrashekhar
(Second Year, M.Sc.)

Symbiosis School of Economics

Symbiosis International University

Submitted on 21st July, 2014

To whom it may concern

This is to certify that SrijanaChandrashekhar worked as an intern on the initiative Tackling

Agriculture Nutrition Disconnect in India (TANDI) to contribute to the reduction of hunger
and malnutrition among Indias poor by increasing the evidence base for understanding the
strength and dynamics of the multiple pathways between agriculture and nutrition and to
provide tools to decision makers to strengthen the pathways from agriculture to nutrition. The
initiative is housed in the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.
Srijana worked as an intern for two months in May and June 2014. She assisted in the desk
review of policies, programs and interventions that strengthen the pathway from agriculture
to nutrition. She now has working knowledge of issues relating to factors affecting health and
nutrition outcomes.

S. Chandrasekhar
Associate Professor,
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Dr./Prof. S. Chandrasekhar, Dr.UshaJayachandran and the entire TANDI
II team for providing me with the opportunity to work on this project for a period of two
months. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dr./Prof. Amir Bazaz for his continued
support, and for all his help in my attaining this opportunity. I would like to thank all my
professors at the Symbiosis School of Economics, and my classmates for their constant
support and encouragement.

Contents
1. Introduction and Content
a. About the Organisation
b. Overall Setting and Context of the Project
2. Project Pursued
a. Details of the project
b. Expected deliverables and Time Frame
3. Project Methodology, Data and Approach
a. Review of relevant theory
b. Methodology
c. Data
d. Approach
e. Framework of analysis
4. Results and Analysis
a. Analysis of results
b. Key findings
c. Set of recommendations
5. Future Work and Conclusions
a. Recommendations on enhancing the work
b. What more can be done with data, information and other details?
c. Situation of the work in the wider context of the economics of the country

Report on Internship

1. Introduction and Content

This report elucidates and details on the two month summer internship undertaken by
SrijanaChandrashekhar, as a Research Assistantat the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development
Research, Mumbai in partial fulfilment of the two years Masters (in Economics) course
4

undertaken at the Symbiosis School of Economics under the Symbiosis International

Institute. This report provides details about the organisation interned at, the project pursued,
the expect deliverables and the final outcome together with future recommendations based on
current findings and experience gained. It also includes a paper submitted at the institute
towards the end of the internship period, titled Climate change and its impact on Health,
Nutrition and Agriculture (Adaptive mechanisms for climate change and its impact on
nutrition and health).

a. About the Organisation

The Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) is an advanced research
institute established and fully funded by the Reserve Bank of India for carrying out research
on development issues from a multi-disciplinary point of view.
IGIDR was registered as an autonomous society in 1986, and as a public trust in 1987. It was
inaugurated by the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. It was later recognized as a Deemed
University, and has gained tremendous recognition. It is currently headed by the Governor of
the Reserve Bank of India, Mr. RaghuramRajan.
Located in the suburb of Goregaon, Mumbai, the institute was initially set up purely for
research, but it has rapidly developed into a teaching cum research institute offering M.Sc.
M.Phil and Ph.D programmes focusing on development studies and its various extensions in
energy and environment policy. It aspires to gain insights into the process of development and
alternative policy options and to further disseminate the knowledge acquired.
The aim or objective of IGIDR is to promote and conduct research on developmental issues
from a broad inter-disciplinary perspective (economic, technological, social, political, and
ecological), guided by policy concerns, by individual faculty members research interests, and
by projects from national and international sponsors, provided that they are in line with the
objectives and pursuits of the institute. The insights gained are further disseminated as IGIDR
publications in the form of research papers, project reports, books, monographs and reprints
of journal articles. Information dissemination for further policy research and analysis forms
an important part of the overall objectives of the institute.

b. Overall Setting and Context of the Project

The project pursued during the two month summer internship at IGIDR is an initiative funded
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is called Tackling Agriculture Nutrition
Disconnect in India (TANDI). The objective of TANDI is to contribute to the reduction of
hunger and malnutrition among Indias poor by increasing the evidence base for
understanding the strength and dynamics of the multiple pathways between agriculture and
nutrition and to provide tools to decision makers to strengthen the pathways from agriculture
to nutrition. This project builds on the output from an earlier project led by the International
Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI), and in fact, has been termed as TANDI II.
The project has been undertakenin collaboration with the Institute of Human Development,
National Institute of Nutrition, IRIS Knowledge Foundation, and a few other independent
researchers and the faculty and researchers at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development
Research.
The primary objective of this project is to accumulate existing data, analyse the same and
provide a platform for information dissemination that aids in and allows the understanding of
policy to improve and enhance the pathways between agriculture and nutrition. The project
falls well in line with the overall objectives of IGIDR, in that they share the common
objective of the developmental goal of eradication of malnutrition, especially among those
who lack access to adequate and nutritional agricultural output.
The project finds crucial importance in India and its current agricultural set-up, wherein
improved agricultural performance does not necessarily translate into improved nutritional
outcomes. This incomplete and inadequate cycle of agricultural production and subsequent
consumption is addressed by the project, through analyses of available data in the subject
matter, by providing evidence on the subject, solutions and coping mechanisms to bridge the
agriculture-nutrition gap in India, and addressing policy concerns in this context. TANDI
provides a platform with a dual purpose: to accumulate information on the agriculturenutrition disconnect, and act as a source for researchers and policy makers to obtain relevant
information on the subject matter. It is therefore well founded in the current Indian economics
set up in general, and in the agricultural set up in particular.

2. Project pursued
6

a. Details of the project

The project Tackling Agriculture Nutrition Disconnect in India (TANDI), set up by the
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, in collaboration with the Institute of
Human Development, National Institute of Nutrition, IRIS Knowledge Foundation, and a few
other independent researchers, is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The
initiative is going to assemble existing data, and fill knowledge gaps through two
mechanisms.
First, it proposes to use a novel methodology connecting separate sectoral data sets.
Second, it will build a new integrated survey for understanding the pathways from agriculture
to nutrition.
As a result this will help along three dimensions, as follows. It will help to test the strength
and relative importance of pathways identified as part of International Food Policy Research
Institutes (IFPRI) initiative on Tackling Agriculture Nutrition Disconnect in India (TANDI
I) so that the impact of policies can be understood and recommendations may be made for
better policies in order to bridge the gap towards improving nutrition outcomes. Second, it
will help to invest in building the tools and models and capacity for integrated research on
pathways from agriculture to nutrition. Third, it will help in more effective advocacy on why
and how we need to strengthen the pathways from agriculture to nutrition simultaneously.
TANDI II addresses data limitations and suggests some ways to overcome the data
disconnect. The initiative is therefore aimed at strengthening the evidence base for
understanding the strength and dynamics of the multiple pathways between agriculture and
nutrition. It will provide policy analysis and tools for decision makers and advocate inclusion
of relevant indicators into data collection efforts to evaluate program and policy impact. The
distinctive element of the proposal is the close interaction between development economists,
agricultural economists, applied econometricians, clinical nutritionists, and gender specialists
building upon the knowledge of all partners in order to address common issues of interest.
Each partner and collaborating researcher has independently worked on the issue of
agriculture, consumption, gender and nutrition and has built a body of knowledge. The final
output would therefore lead to a better understanding of the underlying issues and the
interplay between agriculture, consumption and nutrition outcomes.

b. Expected deliverables and Time Frame

As a Research Assistant at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), I
worked on a project entitled Tackling Agriculture Nutrition-Disconnect in India (TANDI
II) in a team of seven consisting of the faculty, research associates, fellow internsand staff at
IGIDR. During my two month internship as a research assistant, I was assigned desk research
and reviews, data collection, data compilation, referencing and I was required to submit a
four page paper at the end of my internship.
During my internship, I was working under the guidance and mentorship of Dr./Prof. S.
Chandrasekhar and Dr.UshaJayachandran, who were both part of the TANDI II team. I
conducted desk research and reviews for both mentors, and assisted in the setting up of the
TANDI II website. I especially assisted Dr.UshaJayachandran in the preliminary research,
reviewing and summarizing a large number of research papers, extensive organisation and
referencing for her study, which was a review paper on agriculture-nutrition disconnect in
India, which would be a valuable addition to the TANDI website.
Under the supervision of Dr. S. Chandrashekhar, I was expected to author a paper on climate
change and its impact on health and nutrition, the final draft of which I have included in this
report. This study included extensive research on the subject matter, review of existing
literature and summarizing of several papers on the subject.On a day-to-day basis, I also
assisted Ph.D. students at IGIDR with data compilation, and data handling for their individual
papers on other development research areas, that was entrusted to me.
Broadly, during my two month internship (May 1 st June 31st), I was required to help in the
setting up of the website for TANDI II, assist in the preliminary research for a review paper,
compile secondary level data, conduct desk reviews and summarize research, assist
extensively in referencing and author a paper on a given topic, based on knowledge gathered
on the topic during the internship.

3. Project Methodology, Data and Approach

a. Review of relevant theory
The project entitled Tackling Agriculture-Nutrition Disconnect in India deals with the gaps
in the access to nutrition in terms of agricultural output. The objective of TANDI is to
contribute to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition among Indias poor by increasing the
8

evidence base for understanding the strength and dynamics of the multiple pathways between
agriculture and nutrition and to provide tools to decision makers to strengthen the pathways
from agriculture to nutrition.
The primary objective of this project is to accumulate existing data, analyse the same and
provide a platform for information dissemination that aids in and allows the understanding of
policy to improve and enhance the pathways between agriculture and nutrition.
The primary premise for this project is therefore that improved agricultural outcomes do not
necessarily translate to improved diet, nutritional outcomes or better health. The literature
dealing with this issue provides evidence to back this premise, as well as draws out pathways
between agriculture and nutrition, on which to base solutions and recommendations for
improved nutritional outcomes.
The literature reviewed for this purpose deals with several issues in this aspect, including
food security, policy analysis, maternal and child health, gender related issues, mid-day meal
scheme, nutrition sensitive interventions, problems within agriculture, measurement of
poverty, understanding the reasons for the disconnect, measuring of hunger, solutions to
tackle the problem and bridge the gap, etc. It is essential to understand these aspects of the
disconnect between agriculture and nutrition.
Food security refers not only to sufficient production and availability, but also access to a
balanced nutrition diet at a micro level. The problem surrounding maternal and child health is
of grave concern since it is extremely crucial to provide correct and adequate nutritional
intake to pregnant and lactating women, new born babies and growing children. Ensuring a
continued supply of nutrition is essential, sometimes to save the life of the mother/child.
Gender related issues have also been found to severely affect nutritional outcomes. Rural
areas especially experience a bias against womens food intake and health. Problems within
agriculture are also reviewed, in terms of the causes of failure of expected yield, lack of
diversification of diet due to the lack of diversification in production, etc. A measurement of
poverty and hunger is also undertaken to provide evidence of the disconnect, as well as to be
able to compare poverty measurements with agricultural achievements.
Specific programs and schemes have also been analysed as a potential source of improved
nutritional outcomes, such as the mid-day meal scheme wherein the food provided to children
in schools can act as a solution to ensure adequate intake of nutritious food. However,
analyses shows that this is far from being achieved. On the contrary, the scheme has further
9

worsened nutrition and health conditions in certain areas. Other aspects that have been
analysed include, as already mentioned, nutrition sensitive interventions such as solutions
sought to build on pathways between agriculture and nutrition. For example, there is a
growing consensus that reducing childhood malnutrition is a critically important goal, but far
less consensus on what kind of strategies can best achieve that goal. Many nutrition programs
focus on quite specific interventions (food supplements, or nutrition training), but many
non-nutrition factorssuch as household income (poverty), food availability, female
education and health outcomescan potentially have profound influences on nutrition
outcomes.
Advancing the knowledge in this field can help policymakers to design strategies and
prioritize action for accelerating growth and improving nutrition.The data has therefore been
sourced to acknowledge these questions and enquire into the reasons for the disconnect.

b. Data
The data for this project is sourced extensively from websites, journals, and other
publications. Since the project deals primarily in information accumulation and
dissemination, the way forward for this project is the continuous evaluation and addition of
information in the form of research papers, review papers, resource papers, policy analysis,
blogs, etc.
The data assimilated for the purpose of this project includes literature on food security, policy
analysis, maternal and child health, gender related issues, mid-day meal scheme, nutrition
sensitive interventions, problems within agriculture, measurement of poverty, understanding
the reasons for the disconnect, measuring of hunger, solutions to tackle the problem and
bridge the gap, etc. It is essential to understand these aspects of the disconnect between
agriculture and nutrition.
During the course of my internship at IGIDR, I assisted in the preliminary research for a
review paper, for which the data required was directly available in the form of research
papers and other literature. This literature provided adequate scope of review and needed to
be summarized to fit module descriptions on the TANDI website, and included aspects of
agriculture, nutrition, climate change, interventions, poverty, etc.

10

For the purpose of the paper submitted towards the end of my internship at IGIDR, I had to
conduct desk research and reviews on relevant literature. The paper titled Climate Change
and its Impact on Health, Nutrition and Agriculture required an enquiry into the several
aspects and forms of climate change, and its impact on health and nutrition in different
countries/regions of the world. It further studies the various coping mechanisms, both at the
government-level and local micro-level, which are further explored through the review of
existing literature and data.
The data includes climate change in the form of droughts, floods/sea level rise, extreme heat
or cold temperatures, variations and inconsistency in rainfall patterns, natural disasters, etc.
The impact of the most common types of climate change witnessed in several parts of the
world have been taken up, for example the floods that inundate Bangladesh every year, and
the coping mechanisms that have developed thereof; the droughts in India, and the success
stories of solutions implemented to tackle drought-like situations, especially in Gujarat vis-vis the solutions undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa for the same problem.

4. Results and Analysis

a. Analysis of results
Aside

from

the

preliminary

research

undertaken

as

research

assistant

to

Dr.UshaJayachandran, I worked independently on a paper on climate change and its impact

on nutrition outcomes. Below is the final draft of the paper submitted at the end of the
internship, at IGIDR, which is indicative of the results unearthed during the review of
available literature on the subject:

Climate Change and its Impact on Health, Nutrition and Agriculture

(Adaptive mechanisms for climate change and its impact on nutrition and health)
Introduction
The severity associated with the impact of climate change on ecological structures,
socioeconomic systems and human health has been witnessed repeatedly through extreme
heat or cold temperatures, variations and inconsistency in precipitation, sea level rise and
natural disasters. Even as India prepares itself to minimize the impact of a potential drought,
11

based on the meteorological departments predictions for the year 2014 forecasting rainfall
deficits at 48% only till mid-June, one of the crucial months for the Southwest monsoons, and
an overall shortage of rainfall in the year, studies suggest that the impact on human health,
food security and economic growth may not be as acute as perhaps, the droughts suffered
since 2002-03. Several factors can be attributed to this sense of improved adaptability
especially in drought prone agricultural areas, including groundwater demand management,
investments in irrigation projects and programs, a record of excess rainfall in the preceding
year and a fall in the share of agriculture in GDP. However, the overall effects of climate
change, especially on agriculture and nutrition are still overwhelming, and vulnerable areas
require greater and more enhanced armour to fight consequent food insecurity and
malnutrition.
Neighbouring Bangladesh endures annual floods, owing to its vulnerable geographical
location, topography and high population density, which inundate a fourth of the country in a
normal year. Although small-scale flooding is required to sustain agriculture on account of
the sediment deposits that act as a fertilizer, Bangladeshs floods have developed from a boon
into a hindrance, and have caused the loss of arable land, agricultural output, livelihood and
access to markets. Bangladesh is one of most malnourished countries of the world, especially
among women and children. The Government of Bangladesh initiated its first Flood Control
Projects in 1963, and today, a number of interventions have been conceptualized and
implemented, a majority of them being micro-level local solutions through lifestyle
adaptability. China, on the other hand, faces a severe water crisis issue with rising
temperatures, droughts and an over-dependency on its rivers. To cope with the effects of
climate change, especially on agriculture, China has invested in various solutions such as
research and insurance policies, as well as local level solutions such as changes in cropping
patterns and irrigation infrastructure.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, especially the drylandd areas, sophisticated intercropping systems
have been undertaken to manage risks. Kenya, a drought prone country with 80% of the
population depending on 18% of the total land has also undertaken certain measures to
alleviate the effects of climate change such as government financed irrigation technology and
the Kenya DrylandsLifestock Development Program. A majority of these measures however
have not borne substantial fruit. Another Sub-Saharan African country, Mali has undertaken a
national meteorological service to monitor and disseminate climate and weather related

12

information to the grassroot farmers. This program has reported a success in terms of
improved crop yields.
Developing countries are the lowest contributors to climate change, and yet, are the most
vulnerable to it. Climate change directly or indirectly affects the nutrition and health of a
large number of people in India, especially in the rainfed agricultural sector. Several
interventions and mitigation strategies have been drawn out, some of which have been
implemented. This paper studies the impact of climate change on health and nutrition
outcomes in India, the coping strategies that have been employed and can possibly be
adopted by taking a leaf out of the book of other developing countries adaptive strategies.

Droughts in India: Past, Present and Future

The impact of climate change on health and nutrition takes place through its impact on
agriculture and food security, access to food and medical help, and migration. These factors
are also included in the characteristics that form desirable nutritional outcomes, together with
value-chain approaches, public-private partnerships and access to food through social
programs and safety nets. In most developing countries these factors are by themselves
represented by poor indicators. Therefore, the additional impact of climate change results in
the worsening of health and nutrition.
A majority of Indian agriculture relies primarily on rainfall, which makes agricultural output
directly vulnerable to variations in rainfall patterns. The frequency and intensity of droughts
in India is therefore no surprise. It is for this reason that several adaptation methods have
been taken up to mitigate the impact of droughts in India. Since the revolution in 1965-66,
groundwater has increasing emerged as a key adaptive mechanism to tackle inconsistent
rainfall and droughts. Studies have illustrated that groundwater remains the most droughtproof source of water because it depends not only on the current years rainfall but also on the
preceding years rainfall, which if in abundance, can continue to supply for the current year.
India has been able to minimize the effects of a drought because of this characteristic of
groundwater in the past. Of the four types of droughts, groundwater irrigation can enable to
overcome a Meteorological and Agricultural Drought, and therefore defer the effects of a
Hydrological drought and completely avoid a Socioeconomic one. An excellent example of
increased efficiency through groundwater irrigation is that of Gujarat, which has
implemented groundwater demand management by rationing agricultural power supply under
13

the Jyotirgramscheme launched in 2003. Gujarat has also implemented community-based

groundwater recharge, which has led to economical use of groundwater. This, compared to
canal and dam irrigation which are reported to be highly mismanaged and inefficient,
provides a more suitable alternative. Dams are rarely equipped with carry-over storage, and
the requirement of power makes them a costly and ineffective solution in times of drought.
Between 1990 and 2007, $20 billion was spent on surface irrigation and yet there was a
decline in net area under it by over 3 million hectares. Indeed, studies assert that the best
protected areas are those that are irrigated by deep tube-wells, especially canal recharged
ones, such as those in upper Punjab and Central Gujarat. Such tube-wells together with check
dams and percolation dams, such as those constructed by communities and the government in
Saurashtra, have proven successful. With this, the emergence of groundwater-banking is
every bit the way forward that studies suggest. Groundwater recharge can be undertaken by
using surface water (which is more exposed to evaporation) as experimented in the US and
Australia. This method provides a greater access and a more equitable solution to water
unavailability. The International Water Management Institute has advocated the use of
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to take up these projects. By way
of these solutions, India is relatively more resilient to a year of less rainfall or drought, as is
predicted for the year 2014. With an abundant rainfall year of 106% in 2013, India may
indeed be able to fall back upon groundwater irrigation to maintain food security.
Another solution implemented at the micro level in certain parts of India is the diversification
of risks by way of mixed cropping, one of the two crops being drought-resistant, therefore
allowing the farmer to sell, if not consume, a part of the output and therefore increasing
access to food and nutrition. Sub-Saharan Africa has taken up similar sophisticated
intercropping strategies for its dryland areas by growing, for example, maize and beans,
cowpea and sorghum, and millet and groundnut to diversify the risk of a drought. This
method allows not only for the diversification of risks, but may also enable a diversification
of diets, which is an important outcome for better nutrition and health.
Kenya has been subject to severe droughts, such as the drought in 2005 which left 3.3 million
people starving and therefore malnourished. A peculiar issue with the policies inbuilt with
climate change adaptability in Kenya is that while they have been aimed at linking
agriculture, food security and environment, an assessment of overall integration and
implementation strategies has not been achieved. Kenya faces a problem similar to India in
terms of the irrigation technology financed by the government, which fails to be
14

contextualized and made available for local level management and ownership. One of the
adaptive programs implemented by the Government of Kenya however is the Kenya
Drylands Livestock Development Program, concentrated especially in north-east Kenya,
which aims at improving livestock productivity, competitiveness, trade and marketing. This
program included the provision of vaccination to livestock by way of vaccination campaigns.
In India, such solutions have been resorted to at a more local level, whereby farmers divert
resources to dairy-farming in the case of a drought. Such solutions have worked in western
India, provided that they have been implemented within dairy cooperatives.
Increasing resilience to a drought requires its prediction, and the dissemination of relevant
information to the grassroot level. Agricultural practices can then be molded to adapt to the
circumstances. A successful initiative has emerged from Mali, a West-African country where
the national meteorological service launched a program for transmitting rainfall and soil
moisture information through a network of representative farmers and organizations, NGOs
and the local government. Throughout the growing season, farmers receive regular bulletins
to adjust production practices to weather and climate change. In 2003-04, crop yields were
greater in areas where this program was implemented. However, the access to information is
limited to the meteorological monitoring capacity. The implementation of such a program in
India could prove to be beneficial, at the micro-level, to overcome susceptibility to climate
change.

Floods in India: Impact on health and nutrition, and lessons from Bangladesh
South-Asia is one of the greatest victims of floods, and in India, the flood-prone areas include
West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat
and Assam, and constitute 12% of the total land mass. West Bengal is one of the worst
affected because it is flooded by the Ganga basin as well as the Brahmaputra and Barak
basins. Bihar is subject to severe floods every year owing to the rivers Burhi, Bagmati,
Gandak, Kamla and several other smaller rivers. In Orissa, spilling over of river banks by
Mahanadi, Baitarni and Brahmani causes havoc. Floods destroy crop and households, render
people jobless and most important to health, enable the spread of life-threatening diseases.
The Kosiriver, known as the Sorrow of Bihar has caused some of the worst floods in Bihar.
In the 1950s, the Government of India undertook a project to build embankments on the river
to prevent its westward shifting. However, silt deposits and sand load within the
15

embankments together with poor maintenance by the government resulted in the flooding of
the surrounding areas, leading to one of the most disastrous floods in the history of the state.
The Owner Driven Reconstruction program tested for rehabilitation after the severe
earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, has been put to test for reconstruction in the Kosi region of
West Bengal and is called the Kosi Reconstruction Programme. West Bengal, on the other
hand, has undertaken lifestyle adaptability strategies in the Gangetic Delta region, to cope
with the floods, by building elevates bamboo platforms for refuge in the time of floods. This
is very similar to the local level solutions found in Bangladesh, one the most flood-prone
countries in the world.
Bangladeshs flood of the century in 1998 left two-thirds of the country inundated, a loss of
10% of the rice crop, massive food insecurity which resulted in food imports and incoming
food aid, and several water-borne diseases like diarrhea and cholera, all resulting in the death
of thousands of people. The main sector affected by the floods is the agricultural sector,
rendering poor nutrition outcomes and critical health conditions. Bangladesh, one of the
lowest contributors to greenhouse emissions, designed its first flood control project in 1963
and since then several solutions have been conceptualized and implemented.
After the 1987-88 floods, the government designed the Flood Action Plan (FAP) which
involved several interventions for protection against floods such as flood embankments,
pumping stations, regulators, retention basins, construction and upgrading of road networks,
flood walls and canal improvement. Based on a vulnerability assessment, these solutions
together with an emergency response mechanism and early warning systems are crucial (such
as the one adopted by France after the Heatwaves of 2004). However, the implementation of
the FAP has been slow, if at all. It is also recognized that there is a lack of stations for the
Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre to circulate warnings beforehand.
Several micro-level solutions have evolved into lifestyle changes among the locals who live
under the threat of annual floods. These include cluster villages, floating schools, floodshelters, floating gardens and tubewells. Floating gardens are locally developed land masses
that make use of aquatic weed and bamboo, that facilitate the growth of plants, vegetables
and crops. These prove to be highly adaptable to floods and have reported ten times greater
productivity than traditional land-based agricultural production in Southeast Bangladesh. It is
easily observed that floating gardens have emerged as the solution to continued availability
and access to food during floods. Tubewells are another local solution whereby the wall of
16

the well is raised such that the flood water is unable to enter and contaminate the
groundwater. This is tremendously beneficial because it prevents the spread of water-borne
diseases. Bangladesh has been a homeground for homestead food production, which have
continually enhanced health and nutrition by way of increased production, access and supply.
Another important pathway between agriculture and nutrition is the empowerment of women.
A majority of the locally adapted solutions in Bangladesh have been spearheaded by women,
which only reasserts the significance of this particular linkage. Floating gardens, flood-proof
homestead food production and tubewells together with the empowerment of women can be
adopted in the flood-prone regions of India to improve food, nutrition and health.

Conclusion
Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages are defined by the following five pathways: increase in food
production for consumption, increase in income from sale of agricultural commodities and
greater farm productivity, women empowerment as contributors to household food security,
increase in supply resulting in falling prices and increase in income enabling the purchase of
a more diversified and nutritious food basket and lastly, macroeconomic effects such as
enhanced income resulting in a balanced food basket. Climate change in the form of floods,
droughts, temperature and sea level rise etc. deter these pathways, that is, they act as an
obstruction to the fulfilment of these pathways, and therefore prevent the enhancing of
nutrition. Adaptation mechanisms are aimed at removing these obstructions so that adequate
nutrition levels are achieved. Adequate nutrition is obtained through food security and
suitable health. Indias adaptive strategies, though heavily invested in and tailor-made, are not
entirely sufficient to cope with the impact of climate change. The examples of adaptability
plans and policies, especially the success stories unique to each country, given in this paper
provide a guide to India to borrow them in order to maintain food security, better nutrition
and achieve improved health outcomes.

b. Key findings
The severity associated with the impact of climate change on ecological structures,
socioeconomic systems and human health has been witnessed repeatedly through extreme

17

heat or cold temperatures, variations and inconsistency in precipitation, sea level rise and
natural disasters.
Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages are defined by the following five pathways: increase in food
production for consumption, increase in income from sale of agricultural commodities and
greater farm productivity, women empowerment as contributors to household food security,
increase in supply resulting in falling prices and increase in income enabling the purchase of
a more diversified and nutritious food basket and lastly, macroeconomic effects such as
enhanced income resulting in a balanced food basket. Climate change in the form of floods,
droughts, temperature and sea level rise etc. deter these pathways, that is, they act as an
obstruction to the fulfilment of these pathways, and therefore prevent the enhancing of
nutrition.
The major findings through the research and review for this paper includes adaptation
mechanisms aimed at removing these obstructions so that adequate nutrition levels are
achieved. Indias adaptive strategies, though heavily invested in and tailor-made, are not
entirely sufficient to cope with the impact of climate change. The examples of adaptability
plans and policies, especially the success stories unique to each country, uncovered in this
paper provide a guide to India to borrow them in order to maintain food security, better
nutrition and achieve improved health outcomes.

c. Set of recommendations
Based on the analyses undertaken, the research and reviews conducted and the paper authored
during the two month internship, the following are the set of recommendations made (based
primarily on the paper attached to the report):
Developing countries are the lowest contributors to climate change, and yet, are the most
vulnerable to it. Climate change directly or indirectly affects the nutrition and health of a
large number of people in India, especially in the rainfed agricultural sector. Several
interventions and mitigation strategies have been drawn out, some of which have been
implemented. However, several other interventions can be adopted from other countries
experiencing similar climate change effects.

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For instance, Sub-Saharan Africa has taken up sophisticated intercropping strategies for its
dryland areas by growing two different crops (at least one highly resistant to drought) to
diversify the risk of a drought. Kenya faces a problem similar to India in terms of the
irrigation technology financed by the government, which fails to be contextualized and made
available for local level management and ownership. One of the adaptive programs
implemented by the Government of Kenya however is the Kenya Drylands Livestock
Development Program, concentrated especially in north-east Kenya, which aims at
improving livestock productivity, competitiveness, trade and marketing. In Mali, a WestAfrican country, the national meteorological service launched a program for transmitting
rainfall and soil moisture information through a network of representative farmers and
organizations, NGOs and the local government.
To cope with inundations, especially in the eastern part of the country, strategies can be
adopted like the ones in Bangladesh. These include cluster villages, floating schools,
flood-shelters, floating gardens and tubewells. It is easily observed that floating gardens
have emerged as the solution to continued availability and access to food during floods.
Tubewells are another local solution whereby the wall of the well is raised such that the flood
water is unable to enter and contaminate the groundwater. This is tremendously beneficial
because it prevents the spread of water-borne diseases. The homestead food production
program pioneered in Bangladesh has proved to be another boon, and has continually
enhanced health and nutrition by way of increased production, access and supply. A majority
of the locally adapted solutions in Bangladesh have been spearheaded by women, which only
reasserts the significance of this particular linkage. Floating gardens, flood-proof homestead
food production and tubewells together with the empowerment of women can be adopted in
the flood-prone regions of India to improve food, nutrition and health.

5. Future work and conclusions

a. What more can be done with data, information and other details?
Due to the access and availability of a large amount of data, literature and resources at hand,
it is imperative to simplify the knowledge base and increase its access to a greater and more
varied audience, especially since a primary motive for this project is the dissemination and
distribution of information among professionals from varied fields, as well as provide easy
access of information to a larger people who may not necessarily be well versed to the ideas
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presented. For this purpose, an important aspect that could be added to the website, is a
section for blogs and articles, wherein smaller articles and papers, such as the one attached to
this reported and submitted by me at the institute, could be included in order to simplify the
large amount of data and information otherwise available that may not be perceivable by
everyone. It could provide for easier reads and therefore reach a wider audience, and
accomplish its objectives better.
Another addition that could be made is that of a live news update section, wherein relevant
news items may be added on a daily basis, in order to connect the information available on
the website to a wider contextual space of the Indian economy, and its constantly changing
and dynamic framework.

b. Situation of the work in the wider context of the economics of the country
The purpose of the project, as well as the theme of the paper presented here can be suitably
fitted in the wider contextual space of the current economic scenario of the country. India
being a predominantly agrarian economy and even after having achieved food sufficiency,
has some of the highest levels of malnutrition in the country. Given this scenario, the project
is crucial to provide direction towards further research in the area, in order to bridge the gaps
between agriculture and nutrition outcomes.
Climate change is a reality every generation has faced in different forms. However, today
climate change is largely affected by human action and intervention. Rising temperatures and
sea levels are being attributed to human causes. In this context, climate change affects
agriculture and therefore gravely affects nutrition and health. Given this scenario, the article
presented here finds importance in terms of the coping mechanisms that could be adopted
from the ones mentioned, in order to improve nutrition outcomes irrespective of changing
climate conditions.

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