About the Project
Climate change threatens the food production systems and livelihoods of significant proportion of the population in India. the potential impacts of climate change on agriculture are multi-faceted, directly influencing productivity, yields and the availability of arable land and water, as well as food prices and trade patterns for staple and high-value products alike. The potential effect on food security, where a number of Indian States already face shortages in production under climatic conditions, is likely to be exacerbated by climate change directly or indirectly.
The project is based on the premise that a broad but a concrete empirical approach is needed to understand the mechanisms of food security i.e. an institutional approach addressing how various kinds of food production and distribution institutions operate and interact to produce a combination of entitlements that can ensure household food security.
The analysis under the project will take into account the differences across states given that the huge diversity across states with respect to soil, water and climate variables as well as market based and public food distribution systems. The project, therefore, will be conducted from a state level perspective. It will involve methodological triangulation, including macro-modelling, a sociological study of the institutionalisation of food chains, field work in local communities using structured interviews, statistics, as well as text analyses of policy papers and other material on political processes.
Recognising the variation in food institutions across India, the project will focus on two states i.e. Bihar and Karnataka, which represent contrasting cases with regard to food production and distribution systems as well as household food security. Rice and potatoes are the two products selected to be studied in detail.