Natural Resources Institute

Staff

Name Details
Associate Professor Ravinder Kumar
  • Qualifications: BSc, PGDFM (Equivalent to MBA)
  • Biography:

    Ravi is an Associate Professor of Monitoring and Impact at Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK. He has experiences in international development and research relating to poverty, livelihoods, agriculture, natural resource management, governance /democracy, responsible business investments, social enterprises and sustainability certification in agricultural commodities. Over two decades, he has provided monitoring and evaluation support to organisations and programmes in many sectors. He has conducted programme and performance evaluations, including evaluations of multi-partner, multi-country alliances and networks. Similarly, he has facilitated design and implementation of monitoring, evaluation and learning systems. He has led on sustainability research in many agricultural commodities such as palm oil, cotton, soybean, cocoa, cashew, sugarcane. Overall Ravi has experiences in diverse monitoring and evaluation works using both qualitative and quantitative methods, statistical analysis, outcome mapping, contribution tracing /analysis, theory of change-based impact evaluations, experimental (randomised control trials) and quasi-experimental research etc.

    R Kumar also has more than a decade of experiences in leading, advising (or being part of) projects working towards developing and upgrading agricultural and tree crop value chains. He has implemented value chain development, livelihoods, social protection and local economic development projects in India.

    R Kumar has long term experience in India and professional experiences in many other countries in Africa, Asia – Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.
  • Selected Publications:
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:
    • Pragmatic theories of change and monitoring and evaluation frameworks, tools and approaches in different sectors of international development (agriculture, livelihoods, value chains, climate change and adaptation, private sector development, etc.)
    • How evaluations can become more impactful, including the making of a new-age evaluator
    • Practical methodologies and challenges in measuring impact of agriculture research, advocacy, policy influence, climate resilience, social business ventures, innovations and nutritional outcomes
    • Inclusive business models and private sector development approaches that aim to target and achieve poverty reduction and local economic development
    • Pro-poor /inclusive value chain development
    • Large scale transformative models for poverty alleviation and sustainable natural resource management (land, water, forest)
  • Research Projects:

    Ravi’s current research projects are:

    • 2018. Sierra Leone: Social Expert in Cashew value chain sustainability research and analysis in Sierra Leone, through Agrinatura, for European Commission Development Co-operation.
    • 2017-22. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Soloman Islands, Zambia and Tanzania: Team Leader in designing and implementing a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) system in FISH CGIAR Research Program, being implemented by World Fish.
    • 2017-2020. India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana: Deputy Team Leader in Performance Evaluation of global component of FCDO’s ‘Innovative Ventures & Technologies for Development’ (INVENT) programme, focused on affordable and inclusive innovations /social enterprises in agri-food, health and ICT sectors.
    • 2015-19. India: Team Leader for assessing social, economic and environmental impact of Sustainability Standards in Cotton through a randomised control trial in a Better Cotton Initiative project in India

    Some of Ravi’s previous research project were:

    • 2017. Sierra Leone: Social Expert in Oil Palm value chain sustainability research and analysis in Sierra Leone, through Agrinatura, for European Commission Development Co-operation.
    • 2016-17. Ghana: Team leader in Evaluation of the impacts of rainforest alliance certification on smallholder cocoa producers in Ghana.
    • 2016-17. Global: Team Leader in Contributing to the development of methodology and tool for establishing the SDG Land Tenure Indicator 1.4.2.
    • 2015. Global: Team Leader in Development of sourcebook (for statisticians and Govt. statistical and administrative agencies) for operationalisation of Global Land Indicators.
    • 2013-14. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa: Team Leader, Global Development Network: Final External Evaluation of a global research project on agriculture policies.
    • 2011-12. India: Team Leader: Oxfam, Evaluation of Ensuring Livelihoods of Small Farmers through Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change Adaptation and rights-based advocacy.
    • 2011. India: Team Leader in Evaluation of Arghyam-supported project on Integrated Rural Domestic Water Management (IDWM) being implemented by three partners in India
    • 2010-12. India: Project Director in EU funded Integrated Water Resource Management Project
    • 2010-11: India: Team Leader in large nation-wide research on social protection systems in India
    • 2009-11. India: Team Leader - Impact Evaluation of the IFC supported Sugarcane Productivity Enhancement Project – International Finance Corporation, using a quasi-experimental design.
    • 2009-10. India: Team Leader in Review of Sustainable Community Based Approaches for Livelihoods Enhancement (SCALE), funded by Aga Khan Foundation and European Union.
    • 2008-10. Cambodia: Project Advisor in design and implementation support to Govt. of Cambodia for Formative Evaluation and Outcome Monitoring of Deconcentration and Decentralisation program.
    • 2008. India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia: International M&E consultant in Final review of Downward Accountability of Oxfam Humanitarian Response to Indian Ocean Tsunami
    • 2003-07. India: Team Leader in design, development and implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) system in Poorest Areas Civil Society Programme of FCDO India.
  • Responsibilities:

    Ravi’s work is dedicated to improve process and performance management in international development to benefit low-income families in developing countries.  His role and responsibility at NRI and within the University includes; contributing to growing the enterprise portfolio and capacities in monitoring and evaluation, expanding NRI’s footprint and partnerships in South Asia, and leading on experimental (randomised control trials) and longitudinal research in many sectors.  Ravi’s work is also focussed on innovations in M&E and impact research.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0157-1310

    LinkedIn

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravinder-kumar-99b94013/

    Google Scholar

    https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=_tPATGIAAAAJ&hl=en

    Research Gate

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ravinder_Kumar27
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3054
Associate Professor of Monitoring and Impact
Richard Lamboll Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3762
Principal Scientist: Socio-Economist
Professor Valerie Nelson
  • Qualifications: BA Hons., MSc, PhD
  • Biography:

    Valerie Nelson, Professor in Sustainability and Political Ecology, currently leads the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group. She has a first degree in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), an MSc in Rural Resources and Environmental Policy (Wye College, University of London) and a PhD in Global Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives: Impacts, Governance, Systemic Constraints and Regenerative Alternatives’ (University of Greenwich).

    She has worked in international development and environmental sustainability since 1992, initially conducting research in Belize on community engagement in forest planning and management, conducting field research with Mayan and migrant communities, followed by research at an agricultural research institute of the University of the State of Mexico. The latter involved research with Mazahua Indigenous Peoples in the central highlands of Mexico. Following a 6-month stint in Bavaria supporting partnership development between European, Latin American and Asian protected areas for the European Federation of Nature and National Parks, she joined Oxfam GB's policy department, working on the South-South Environment Learning Programme. Valerie joined NRI in 1996 and has since conducted social and transdisciplinary research on food and agriculture, especially agroecology, land rights and rural development, conservation, political ecology and environmental sustainability in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the UK.

    Valerie has led significant research projects and conducted action research in the following areas: Participatory rural development, including pioneering of participatory video in 1998 in Malawi and many years of experience in developing and facilitating diverse transdisciplinary, action research and social learning processes;  Sustainable livelihoods and the socio-ecological and socio-nature dimensions of agriculture, food and environment; Gender, intersectionality and climate change adaptation; Smallholder agricultural adaptation and climate change resilience; Governance and politics of sustainability in global value chains; Critical analysis of fair trade, sustainability standards, global value chains and responsible business; Land rights and governance; Agroecology and alternative food networks; post-growth economies.

    She currently co-leads the NRI Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group which has the following research themes: relationality, the more-than-human, socionatures and biodiversity; politics and meanings of food and farming; ecojustice, power and land; transformative change, social movements and sustainability futures; post-growth economies and commoning; environmental intersectionalities and ethics of care. She is working increasingly with arts-based methods including Photovoice, and exploring imaginaries and speculative futures.

    Valerie is an expert for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) acting as a contributing author for the 2022 Values Assessment, the 2022 Scoping Study on Business and Biodiversity, and is currently a lead author for the Transformative Change Assessment. She also supports its Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge dialogues. She is also currently a lead author for the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook GEO-7 State of the Environment report and is a taskforce member for the UNPE GEO 7 Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge Taskforce.

    She sat on the Scottish Government’s advisory panel for their environment strategy (2023) and has recently conducted a study for them on transformative change and sustainability to inform their Environment Strategy. She is also part of Natural England’s nature futures advisory group. She is a member of the friends of the International Land Coalition (ILC). Earlier, Valerie sat on the UK and Ireland’s Development Studies Association Council for 6 years and co-led their climate and development study group, and regularly runs DSA panels at their conferences.

    She is also an evaluation and learning specialist, leading multiple complex evaluations and research studies, including multi-country studies. High level consultancies have been undertaken for, amongst others, International Land Coalition, UNDP, EC, Irish Aid, FCDO, the Dutch Government, ISEAL, ILO, BEIS, Defra, Welthungerhilfe, Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Fairtrade International, Fairtrade Foundation, Rainforest Alliance, Oxfam, CGIAR etc.
  • Selected Publications:

    Book Section

    Edited Book

    Working Paper

    Monograph

    Other
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    Valerie has contributed to the establishment of new research fields, most notably gender and climate change beginning in the early 1990s and subsequently, and the impact, governance and power relations in agro-food systems, including critical analysis of hybrid governance and its limitations and governmentality, such as reform-oriented approaches (e.g. corporate codes, sustainability standards, due diligence, sector transformation). She has explored alternative food networks and agroecology movements and practices and developed new participatory, action research and transdisciplinary methodologies, e.g. pioneering participatory video in Malawi (1996-98), farmer and stakeholder climate future learning journeys in Tanzania (2010s), farmer field school evaluation in Malawi and transdisciplinary multi-stakeholder and civic engagement in learning cycles.

    Valerie currently leads the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts (PEAC) Research Group at the NRI (ADD URL), which has the following research themes:

    • Relationality and sustainability
    • The more-than-human, socionatures and biodiversity
    • Politics and meanings of food and farming
    • Ecojustice, power and land
    • Transformative change, social movements and sustainability futures.
    • Post-growth economies and communing.
    • Environmental intersectionalities and ethics of care.

    Her current work focuses upon the following: relational philosophies and sustainability; critical analysis and action research on imaginaries, socionatures and human-nature relations; colonial modernities, pluriversal conviviality and transformative change; biodiversity and equity in telecoupled agrofood system contexts; Indigenous land rights and futures; arts-based methods and speculative futuring.
  • Teaching Programmes:

    Valerie is currently teaching on the NRI Masters on Sustainable Development, leading a module on Regenerative economies, politics and societies. She is supervising several PhD students on subjects involving relational and political ecology themes, including astro-scholarship, rights of nature, More-Than-Human relations and deer, soil relationality and care ethics, and tropical futurism and imaginaries in commodity frontiers.
  • Research Projects:

    Transformative Change in telecoupled agrofood systems for biodiversity and equity (EU Horizon, 2023-26)

    Partnering with Wageningen University, Netherlands, University of the Andes, Colombia, University of Dschang, Cameroon, the University of Kabianga, Kenya, IDDRI and CIRAD, France, and Hanken University, Finland. The project explores transformative pathways in agro-food systems, moving beyond reform-oriented market-based mechanisms to explore more radical regenerative alternatives. Includes research on rural imaginaries, the more-than-human, emotional ecologies, and issues of biodiversity, equity and justice, within landscapes linked to EU consumption and biodiversity, analysis of transformative change pathways, leverage points and levers e.g. rights of nature, social movements, collective action and commoning for transformative change, as well as facilitating social learning cycles at landscape, national, EU and global scales.

    Food and Nature Futures in Medway (2023-24).

    Funded by the Regional Innovation Fund, exploring food and nature futures in Medway, Kent, though innovative arts-based approaches, social learning processes and surveys

    Social learning for people-centred land governance

    Social learning for LandCollaborative, a Global Community of Practice involving social learning cycles and co-production of learning outputs for the LandCollaborative (International Land Coalition, Mekong Delta Rural Land Governance Programme and WeltHunger Hilfe (WHH) LandforLife programme). The project involved working with 27 organisations in 13 national civil society platforms working on land rights and governance.

    Critical analysis and assessment of fair trade and sustainability market-based mechanisms and responsible business approaches.

    Multiple studies on fair and ethical trade schemes, sustainability standards and certification impacts, social impacts of corporate codes of practice, sector transformation and sustainable landscape approaches, responsible business and ethical trade schemes, trade and global value chains social and economic upgrading innovations, and sustainable finance for diverse donors and research councils (FCDO, ILO, Fairtrade International, Fairtrade Foundation, Max Havelaar, ISEAL, Better Cotton Initiative, Rainforest Alliance, Dutch government). This work led the way asking questions about the effectiveness, impact, politics and governance of private standards and alternative, solidarity trade schemes and initiatives. It generated extensive evidence on impacts, research on the politics and ethics of value chain sustainability governance, and highlighted the inherent limitations and problems associated with market-based mechanisms for sustainability and transformative change. Recent studies on human rights, environmental due diligence and rights of nature.

    Politics and governance implications of private standards initiatives in Kenyan agri-food chains (2008-2011)

    With the Universities of Leeds and Nairobi (ESRC-DFID). This research explored actor struggles over value chain sustainability governance and the emerging role of private actors in shaping narratives and practices. Looking beyond the vertical, the research explored the embedded nature of global value chains and the power inequalities infused in such agrofood chains, the contingent nature of smallholder and worker agency and participation, and the governmentality of sustainability standards and codes. The control-oriented nature of ethical governance was identified as well as areas of resistance and alternative economy narratives.

    Transdisciplinarity and participatory learning approaches in sustainable agriculture and agroecology

    Over several decades including pioneering work on participatory video to support community enquiry, communication and advocacy on livelihoods and the environment in Malawi (1996-98, DFID funded), Farms of the Future project involving facilitation of farmer and agriculture stakeholder learning journeys on climate adaptation in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania (CCAFS, 2011-13), National Learning Alliances using multi-stakeholder social learning cycles on sustainable agriculture in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia (DFID SAIRLA programme), and participatory farming learning including video documentation in evaluative learning on FAO Strengthening Climate Resilience Programme (EC Global Climate Change Alliance, Malawi, 2015-19). Recent study for Agrinatura on Agroecology and Value Chains with FIBL.
  • Research Students:
    • Lachlan Kenneally: PhD on ‘Relational and political ecology perspectives on urban food and commoning in Bristol’.
    • Riley Hickman: PhD on ‘Soil(ed) Relations: Synergies and Struggles in Soil Relations and Politics’ in collaboration with Simon Wilcox, Rothamstead.
    • Niall Readfern: PhD on ‘Niall Readfern, PhD on Power and Perspective: Investigating interactions between telecoupled agrofood systems and plural landscape meanings in biodiversity rich forest landscapes in Kenya.’
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/1927.html
  • Responsibilities:
    • Leader of the Political Ecology, Culture and Arts Research Group.
  • Awards:
    • Defra Nature Futures Framework Advisory Group (23-24). Valerie Nelson.
    • United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) GEO 7 Lead Author (2023 – 26), Chapter on Impacts, focusing on Sustainable Development Goals, Representative in the Indigenous and Local Knowledge Taskforce. Valerie Nelson
    • Global advisory group of the International Land Coalition. NRI co-representative in ILC global advisory group, (2021 – ongoing). Valerie Nelson.
    • IPBES ‘Transformative Change Assessment of Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) (2022-24). Lead author in Chapter 4. ILK dialogue author representative. Valerie Nelson.
    • Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – Scoping Study on Business and Biodiversity. ILK dialogue author representative. Valerie Nelson
    • IPBES ‘Methodological Assessment on incorporating multiple values of nature and nature’s contributions to people for just and sustainable futures.’ Chapter 5. Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – Contributing Author. Valerie Nelson
    • Council Member, UK and Ireland Development Studies Association (6 years)
    • Global Award (IDEAS) Transformative Change Evaluation
    • Co-track chair International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS) on value chains and sustainability.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1075-0238
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3156
Professor of Sustainability and Political Ecology
Professor Vegard Iversen
  • Qualifications: BA, MA, PhD
  • Biography:

    Vegard Iversen has a PhD in development economics from University of Cambridge and is a Professor in Development Economics and the Head of the Livelihoods and Institutions Department at NRI. He a Senior Research Fellow at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and was a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER, Helsinki from 2019 to 2023.

    Vegard joined NRI in September 2018 after 12 years of living and working in India. After starting his development career at the Agricultural University of Norway in 1992, he was a Junior Programme Officer in UNDP’s Delhi office from 1993 to 1995. Having completed his PhD in 2000, he spent six years as tenured Faculty at the School of Development Studies (now Global Development) at University of East Anglia.

    He joined the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) New Delhi office as a Research Fellow in 2006, followed by four years as a visiting Faculty at Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi). He has been a Professor and Vice Dean at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy (2012-13), an Adjunct Professor at Sanford School of Public Policy’s Duke Semester in India programme (2015-17) and a Professor in the Economics Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He was closely involved in the drafting of the programmes and the shaping of the identities of two of India’s first Public Policy Schools - at O. P. Jindal Global University and IIMA.

    During his India years, he also took on a variety of assignments, including e.g. the India case study for the 2012 World Development Report, which had gender equality as its theme (the World Bank). He provided expert methodological feedback (through KPMG) on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s reviews of FCDO programmes across the developing world. He acted in a similar capacity for the Steering Committee overseeing the attempted retrospective evaluation of FCDO’s GBP 250 million investments in the rural livelihoods portfolio in India. He has taken on a variety of evaluation, replication and quality assurance assignments for 3ie.

    Vegard has extensive field, survey and other data collection experience. His applied research spans the use of modern impact evaluation techniques, mixed methods, behavioural experiments, archival work and the occasional sociological or anthropological detour. Ongoing research covers a variety of themes, including social mobility in developing countries with a landmark edited volume published by Oxford University Press in 2021; together with co-authors he uses unique and in-depth survey and behavioural experimental data to study politicians and local democracy in low-income contexts, including who gets elected for office, how to measure politician quality and whether time in office changes men and women politicians differently. Other ongoing research focuses on changes in gender norms and on the impacts of different implementation models for efforts to enhance the productivity of and increase women’s involvement in a dynamic rural sector in northwest Bangladesh.

    From 2012 to 2019 Vegard was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of South Asian Development. He received the 2009 Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article in Journal of Development Studies (jointly with Richard Palmer-Jones): his recent American Journal of Political Science article titled ‘Time in Office and the Changing Gender Gap in Dishonesty’ won a co-author the FulbrightNorway best scientific article award for 2023. He has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Development Studies since 2016.
  • Selected Publications:

    BOOKS 

    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (eds, 2021): Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods and Determinants. Oxford University Press.  

    JOURNAL ARTICLES

    • Bidisha Barooah, Rishabh Bhattacharya, Vegard Iversen, Adrienne Martin, Rohan Shah, Tejita Tiwari and Amanda Wendt (2025): Conservative, Fragmented, Liberal or All at Once? On Gender Norm Stability and Change in Rural Bangladesh. In progress.
    • Marcella Vigneri, Olusegun Fadare, Karen Devries, Vegard Iversen and Tilman Brück (under review): Political Violence and Interpersonal Violence against Children and Youth: Micro-Level Evidence from nine African countries.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anustup Kundu, Rahul Lahoti and Kunal Sen (under review): Barriers or Catalysts? Traditional Institutions and Social Mobility in Rural India.
    • Chaudhuri, Ananish, Vegard Iversen, Francesca Jensenius and Pushkar Maitra (2024): Selecting the ‘Best’? Competing Dimensions of Politician Quality in the Developing World, revise & resubmit, British Journal of Political Science.    
    • Chaudhuri, Ananish, Vegard Iversen, Francesca Jensenius and Pushkar Maitra (2024): Time in office and the Changing Gender Gap in Dishonesty: Evidence from Local Politics in India, American Journal of Political Science, 68(1): 106-22. Awarded the FulbrightNorway Prizefor best scientific article in 2023.
    • Banerjee, Prasenjit, Vegard Iversen, Sandip Mitra and Kunal Sen (2023): Politicians, Institutional Incentives and Citizen Welfare: Evidence from a Lab-in-the Field Experiment in India, Oxford Economic Papers.      
    • Dhillon, Amrita, Vegard Iversen and Gaute Torsvik (2021): ‘Employee referral, social proximity and worker discipline: theory and suggestive evidence from India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 69(3): 1003-1030.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (2019): ‘Beyond Poverty Escapes: Social Mobility in Developing Countries: A Review Article’, World Bank Research Observer, 34(2): 239-73.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Richard Palmer-Jones (2019): ‘All you need is Cable TV?’, Journal of Development Studies, 55(5): 946-66.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen (2017): ‘Rags to Riches’? Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 52(44): 107-114.
    • Afridi, Farzana, Vegard Iversen and M. R. Sharan (2017): ‘Women political leaders, corruption and learning: Evidence from a large public program in India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 66(1): 1-30.
    • Puri, Jyotsna, Anastasia Aladysheva, Vegard Iversen, Yashodhan Ghorpade and Tilman Brück (2017): ‘Can rigorous impact evaluations improve humanitarian assistance?’, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 9(4): 519-42.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Adriaan Kalwij, Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey (2014): ‘Caste dominance and economic performance in rural India’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 62(3): 423-57.
    • Afridi, Farzana and Vegard Iversen (2014): ‘Social audits and MGNREGA delivery: Lessons from Andhra Pradesh’, India Policy Forum 2013-14, Vol 10: 297-331.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Richard Palmer-Jones and Kunal Sen (2013): ‘On the Colonial Origins of Agricultural Development in India: A Re-examination of Banerjee and Iyer, ‘History, Institutions and Economic Performance’’, Journal of Development Studies, 49(12): 1631-46.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Cecile Jackson, Bereket Kebede, Alistair Munro and Arjan Verschoor (2011): ‘Do spouses realise cooperative gains? Experimental evidence from rural Uganda’, World Development, 39(4): 569-78.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Yashodhan Ghorpade (2011): ‘Misfortune, misfits and what the city gave and took: the stories of South-Indian child labour migrants 1935-2005’, Modern Asian Studies, 45(5): 1177-1226.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Gaute Torsvik (2010): ‘Networks, middlemen and other (urban) labour market mysteries’, Indian Growth and Development Review, 3(1): 62-80.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Kunal Sen, Arjan Verschoor and Amaresh Dubey (2009): ‘Job Recruitment Networks and Migration to Cities in India’, Journal of Development Studies, 45(4): 522-43.
    • Iversen, Vegard and Richard Palmer-Jones (2008): ‘Literacy sharing, assortative mating or what? Labour market advantages and proximate illiteracy revisited’, Journal of Development Studies, 44(6): 797-838. Awarded the Dudley Seers Memorial Prizefor the best article published by Journal of Development Studies in 2008.
    • Iversen, Vegard and P. S. Raghavendra (2006): ‘What the signboard hides: Food, caste and employability in small South-Indian eating places’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, 40 (3): 311-41.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Godfrey Bahiigwa, Frank Ellis and Robert James (2006): ‘Private tax collection - remnant of the past or a way forward? Evidence from Rural Uganda’, Public Administration and Development, 26: 317-28.
    • Iversen, Vegard, Birkha Chettry, Paul Francis, Madhu Gurung, Ghanendra Kafle, Adam Pain and Janet Seeley (2006): ‘High value forests, hidden economies and elite capture: Evidence from forest user groups in Nepal’s Terai’, Ecological Economics,58(1): 93-107.
    • Chettry, Birkha, Paul Francis, Madhu Gurung, Vegard Iversen, Ghanendra Kafle, Adam Pain and Janet Seeley (2005): ‘A Framework for the Analysis of Community Forest Performance in the Terai’, Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 4 (2): 1-16.
    • Iversen, Vegard (2003): ‘Intrahousehold inequality – A challenge for the capability approach?’, Feminist Economics, 9 (2-3): 93-115 (Special issue on the Work and Ideas of Amartya Sen). 23) Iversen, Vegard (2002): ‘Autonomy in Child Labor Migrants’, World Development, 30 (5): 817-34.
    • Wiig, Henrik, Jens B. Aune, Solveig Glomsrød and Vegard Iversen (2001): ‘Structural Adjustment and Soil Degradation in Tanzania - A CGE-model approach with Endogenous Soil Productivity’, Agricultural Economics, 24: 263-87.
    • Brekke, Kjell Arne, Vegard Iversen and Jens B. Aune (1999): ‘Tanzania's soil wealth’, Environment and Development Economics,4: 333-56.
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:
    • Dams, irrigation and development;
    • Migration (rural-urban and other);
    • Labour markets and social networks;
    • Social mobility;
    • Social accountability;
    • Identity and discrimination;
    • The impacts of women’s representation (in politics; decentralised natural resource management);
    • Impact Evaluation
  • Research Projects:
    • 2018-21: FutureDAMS, University of Manchester. Research Grant. The impacts of large dams on agricultural productivity and poverty.
    • 2017-18: University of Auckland and Monash University: Research grants (small) for joint research project on the impact of time in office on women (and other) politicians.
    • 2014-16: Evaluation (through Oxford Policy Management/EDOREN - https://edorennigeria.wordpress.com/) of FCDO’s comprehensive support (the DEEPEN programme) to innovative regulation to improve learning in low-cost, private schools in Lagos, Nigeria; 2014-16. The baseline study covered 360 private schools with numeracy and literacy tests administered to 2,450 3rd standard children.
    • 2012: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). Research Grant: Replicaton of Jensen and Oster’s research on cable TV and women’s status in rural India.
    • 2011-2012: International Growth Centre (IGC). Research Grant: Does Female Leadership Impact on the Quality of Public Goods? Evidence from a Public Poverty Alleviation Programme in Andhra Pradesh, India. Survey covering 300 Gram Panchayats and 1,500 MNREGA beneficiary households: extraction from and translation (from Telugu) of more than 700 official social audit reports.
    • 2008-2009: Norwegian Research Council. Research Grant: Social networks, labour transactions and outcomes: A theoretical and empirical study of migrant workers and their employers in South-Asia.
    • 2008-2010: ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, UK)-FCDO joint scheme. Research Grant: The intra-household allocation of resources: cross-cultural tests, methodological innovations and policy implications”, a collaboration between economists and anthropologists using behavioual experiments with married couples to test economic theories of household behaviour in Nigeria, Ethiopia and India (Left project later 2008).
    • 2008-2009: The World Bank, New Delhi. Research grant: Institutional and network-driven barriers to labour market entry: a small, exploratory study of low and unskilled labour markets for youths in (and around) Delhi. In-depth interviews of household and manufacturing employers, workers and recruitment agencies.
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/6483.html
  • Awards:
    • Awarded (together with co-author Richard Palmer-Jones) the Annual Dudley Seers Memorial Prize for the best article in Journal of Development Studies in 2008.               
    • Editor-in Chief, Journal of South Asian Development, 2012-ongoing.
    • Editorial Board Member, Journal of Development Studies, 2016-ongoing.
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0425-2286

    Google Scholar

    https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6jNNybwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

    Academia

    https://greenwich2.academia.edu/VegardIversen
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3225
Professor of Development Economics, Head of Livelihoods and Institutions Department
Dr Baqir Lalani
  • Qualifications: BSc, MSc, PhD
  • Biography:

    Dr Baqir Lalani is a Senior Research Fellow in the Food and Markets Department at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) with experience in the economics/adoption process of improved practices; agricultural innovation systems and farmer decision making/learning processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Baqir joined the NRI in 2016 after completing his PhD which explored the farm-level economics and adoption dynamics of Conservation Agriculture (CA) among smallholder farmers in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. 

    Prior to pursuing his PhD, he spent six years' working for the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in Syria and Tajikistan. His role involved Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of rural development projects including related to specific value chains i.e. olives, cereals and livestock sectors (e.g. sheep fattening and poultry). Baqir has a keen interest in conducting interdisciplinary research related to sustainable intensification issues, post-harvest loss reduction and in understanding decision-making in smallholder households. He has long-term field experience in Mozambique, Syria and Tajikistan and has conducted consultancy assignments for the FAO, FCDO, WorldFish and the OIC.   

    Baqir has secured funding as PI from the University of Greenwich’s seedling fund to undertake a modelling exercise, in collaboration with a team from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), using APSIM to explore different agricultural practices under several climate scenarios. More recently, he was also awarded funding (PI) from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to undertake further research in Mozambique (in collaboration with researchers from Michigan State University) to map farmers’ perceptions related to Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM), alongside on-farm measurements and remote sensing imagery.

    Dr Lalani’s role at the University includes a contribution to research, teaching and consultancy, including involvement with undergraduate and postgraduate/ PhD supervision. 
  • Selected Publications:
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:
    • Farm-level economic analysis and simulation
    • Agriculture and food value chain analysis
    • Conservation Agriculture/Sustainable intensification
  • Research Projects:

    Sustainability - intensification trade-offs in coffee agroforestry (BBSRC)

    Goal: 1 - Identify and assess trade-offs between intensification (maximising productivity and profits) and sustainability (provision of ecosystem services, climate and market resilience) in coffee monocultures and agroforestry systems
    Goal: 2 - How to meet the growing demand for agricultural products and sustain livelihoods of farmers, in a context of climate change and market variation, while maintaining ecosystem services that are required for production and society as a whole.

    EC Food Fortification (European Commission)

    Public and private sector commitment to food fortification and biofortification.  This project aims to identify sustainable, effective business models, particularly for small-scale producers of fortified and biofortified foods. In doing this the project will identify primary drivers and bottlenecks for public and private sector commitment to food fortification (e.g. issues with packaging, costs of premixes, ...) a. Cereal / flour fortification b. Fortified complementary foods c. Bio-fortified seeds and crops

    Value Chain Analysis for Development (VCA4D)

    The VCA4D project aims to analyse the extent to which agricultural value chains contribute to economic growth in EU partner countries and are inclusive, socially and environmentally sustainable. The aim is to provide tangible and robust information to improve EU operations in these countries, in keeping with and in support of local policies.
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/6324.html
  • Responsibilities:

    Research, Consultancy and Teaching/Supervision
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8287-3283

     
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3571
Senior Research Fellow in the Economics of Agri-Food Systems
Dr Charoula K Nikolaou
  • Qualifications: PhD, MSc, BSc, RD
  • Biography:

    Dr Charoula Konstantia (aka Dina) Nikolaou is an HCPC registered dietitian specialising in Diabetes and Obesity management with several years of clinical nutrition experience in hospitals and community nutrition. She received her PhD in Nutrition from the University of Glasgow specialising in Obesity Prevention in 2014. During her PhD, she developed an eLearning programme for unwanted weight-gain prevention using as a basis two distinct behavioural models, the rationale and the stealth model. Both programmes were successful in preventing weight-gain over a course of a year but mostly the one based on the stealth model, opening new avenues for interventions away from the classical health education model. She further expanded on her eHealth knowledge during her research fellow position for Imperial College and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Nanayng Technological University in Singapore. She worked as a researcher and co-ordinator for a WHO-commissioned programme on the effectiveness of different eLearning modalities for training health care professionals.

    She joined NRI, Food and Markets department, in January 2020 as a research fellow in Public Health Nutrition. Before joining NRI, she worked at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, Global Health Policy department and St Luke’s International University, Graduate Public Health School after having been awarded an individual international fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. Her work in Japan focused on local food policies and legislation and how these affect obesity rates, food availability, and food prices. This work was partly a continuation from her work carried out during her fellowship at the Catholique Université de Louvain in Belgium in 2015-2017. Her work in Louvain focused on how Human Rights and specifically the Right to Food could be utilised to prevent malnutrition (underweight and overweight) along with relevant policies and legislation. She is particularly interested in preventing obesity in young adults, the group at the highest risk for unwanted excessive weight gain. She is trying to achieve this by exploring information on nutrition policies and legislation and their influence into personal decision-making. Moreover, she is trying to utilise modern technology for empowering young citizens to manage their lifestyles by providing vital information in a suitable format. The importance of her work has been recognised by the US Obesity Society while still a PhD student when she received the award for one of the most influential papers for 2014 in the field of Obesity for the paper ‘Preventing weight gain with calorie-labelling’. Her PhD thesis was also shortlisted for the Best Thesis Award in Europe from the European Association for the Study of Obesity in 2015. Several other publications also attracted wide media attention due to their importance for public health policy and practice.
  • Selected Publications:

    Nikolaou, C.K., Hankey, C.R. and Lean, M.E.J., 2015. Elearning approaches to prevent weight gain in young adults: A randomized controlled study. Obesity, 23(12), pp.2377-2384

    Nikolaou, C.K., Robinson, T.N., Sim, K.A. and Lean, M.E., 2019. Turning the tables on obesity: young people, IT and social movements. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, pp.1-6.

    Nikolaou, C.K., Hankey, C.R. and Lean, M.E.J., 2015. Weight changes in young adults: a mixed-methods study. International journal of obesity, 39(3), p.508.

    Nikolaou, C.K. and Lean, M.E., 2017. Mobile applications for obesity and weight management: current market characteristics. International Journal of Obesity, 41(1), p.200.

    Nikolaou, C.K., Hankey, C.R. and Lean, M.E.J., 2014. Preventing weight gain with calorie‐labeling. Obesity, 22(11), pp.2277-2283.

    Gentry, S.V., Gauthier, A., Ehrstrom, B.L.E., Wortley, D., Lilienthal, A., Car, L.T., Dauwels-Okutsu, S., Nikolaou, C.K., Zary, N., Campbell, J. and Car, J., 2019. Serious Gaming and Gamification Education in Health Professions: Systematic Review. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(3), p.e12994.

    Dunleavy, G., Nikolaou, C.K., Nifakos, S., Atun, R., Law, G.C.Y. and Car, L.T., 2019. Mobile digital education for health professions: systematic review and meta-analysis by the digital health education collaboration. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(2), p.e12937.

    Saxena, N., Kyaw, B.M., Vseteckova, J., Dev, P., Paul, P., Lim, K.T.K., Kononowicz, A.A., Masiello, I., Car, L.T., Nikolaou, C.K. and Zary, N., 2018. Virtual reality environments for health professional education. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2018(10).

    Gasch, M., Dunleavy, G.J., Kyaw, B.M., Lean, M.E. and Nikolaou, C.K., 2016. Personalized Health, eLearning, and mHealth Interventions to Improve Nutritional Status. Current nutrition reports, 5(4), pp.295-306.
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    Dr Nikolaou’s main research interests are;

    • The use of modern technology for the prevention of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases underpinned by malnutrition (overweight and underweight).
    • Preventing malnutrition in all its forms (underweight and overweight) through policies, legislation, and behavioural economics interventions.
    • Harnessing modern technologies for amplifying social movements for food citizenship and mobilization of the civic society.
    • Developing risk prediction models for weight-gain.
  • Teaching Programmes:

    Master of Public Health, UNICAF and the University of South Wales
  • Research Projects:

    State Scholarship Foundation of Greece and European Union

    Individual Award of 16,400 Euros

    Marie Curie-Move-in Louvain Fellowship

    Individual Award of 83.000 Euros

    JSPS Fellowship

    Individual Award of 8.868.000 JPY plus grant-in of 2.400.000 JPY with Prof Gilmour
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: https://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/7826.html
  • Awards:

    2017 – 2019 JSPS individual fellowship, Global Health Policy department, Graduate Medical School, University of Tokyo, Japan. Transferred to St Luke’s International University

    2015 – 2017 Marie-Curie/Move in Louvain fellowship, Institut pour la recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences juridiques (JUR-I), Catholique Université de Louvain, Belgium

    2015 Best Thesis Award, Award received from the European Society of Obesity, Award received in Prague, Czech

    2014 Most Influential paper for the understanding of Obesity, US Obesity Society

    2013 Saltire Fellowship, Scottish Government Mobility Award, Public Health, Harvard University, USA

    2011 – 2013 European Union and State Scholarship Foundation of Greece, Scholarship for PhD studies, awarded on the merit of the proposal

     

    Membership

    2007 – Present Registered Dietitian, Health and Care Professions Council, UK

    2013 – Present Member, European Public Health Association

    2014 – Present Member, Association of Obesity, US

    2013 – Present Member, European Association of Obesity
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6519-4174

    LinkedIn

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/charoula-konstantia-nikolaou-98691323/?originalSubdomain=jp

    Google Scholar

    https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sa_V6CAAAAAJ&hl=en

    Research Gate

    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Charoula_Nikolaou
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3269
Research Fellow in Public Health Nutrition
Claire Coote
  • Qualifications: PGCE, MSc, BSc
  • Biography:

    My career as an agricultural economist has been development focused and much of the research work I have undertaken has been applied and people-focused in developing countries. I joined NRI in 1997 having worked in Papua New Guinea for an international development capacity building project, for the EU, for ODA (now FCDO) and for international organisations in Geneva (ILO, GATT). My work at NRI is mainly in postharvest areas of agriculture, particularly in market access and value chain development; I have also been involved in social forestry research, particularly in Malawi, and in biomass energy applications for SME in Sri Lanka and Belize.

    Between 2003 and 2004, I was based in Mauritius where I led a small EU project to improve the quality of horticultural exports. Between 2006 and 2010, I was part of the NRI team that worked together with CGIAR researchers (CIP – Jan Low - and HarvestPlus – Howdy Bouis, Anne-Marie Ball), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop an approach to reduce vitamin A deficiency via biofortification of orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties to increase their vitamin A content. I developed the marketing strategy for supporting sustainable market development, working with World Vision and other NGOs and two PhD students from Uganda and Mozambique to oversee implementation as well as ascertaining the effectiveness of the approach. I have undertaken market studies on grain legumes for the McKnight Foundation and for ICRISAT.

    During the last decade I have become engaged in university teaching, developing courses at Masters level, on Corporate Social Responsibility and Natural Resources Management; Economics, Agriculture and Markets; Understanding Rural Development; Food Marketing, and Food Ethics. I have also developed and delivered a complete MA programme – Rural Development Dynamics. I have used my experience of teaching, particularly of international students, at the University of Greenwich to get involved in supporting teaching and learning at other universities, in the UK and in Africa. I am an external examiner for four Masters courses in agricultural economics at the University of Reading. I have developed and deliver short courses on development to Commonwealth PhD scholars. I have recently delivered training on interactive teaching and learning to staff at Gulu University in northern Uganda, where I am part of a Dutch-government funded NICHE project. My work also encompasses capacity building and I have been involved in FCDO-funded research and training to support capacity development in upgrading value chains, in Mali and Botswana, bringing together policy makers, extension workers and research staff to consider and adopt innovative approaches to increase food security and agricultural incomes. I am currently involved in the Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (CD-AIS) project, jointly implemented by AGRINATURA-EEIG and the FAO, and funded by the EU. I am the country focal person for Bangladesh.
  • Selected Publications:
    • Coote, C. and Okwadi, J. (2014) The importance of measuring financial viability: the example of orange sweet potato processing in Uganda. Food Chain Journal 4 (3).
    • Utono, I. M., Coote, C. and Gibson, G. (2014) Field study of the repellent activity of 'Lem-ocimum'-treated double bags against the insect pests of stored sorghum, Tribolium casteneum and Rhyzopertha dominica, in northern Nigeria, J. Stored Products Research.
    • Coote, C., Orr, A. and Munyua, B. (2012) Value chains for pigeon pea, groundnuts and chickpea in East and southern Africa: A synthesis. ICRISAT for the Africa Rising Initiative
    • Coote, C., Tomlins, K., Massingue, J., Okwadi, J. and Westby, A. (2011) Understanding farmers, trader and consumer decision-making to assist sustainable marketing of vitamin A-rich sweet potato in Mozambique and Uganda. IFPRI, 2020 Conference New Delhi, 2020 Conference Note 1
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    I am particularly interested in agricultural education delivery and the learning challenges faced by international MSc students in the UK and in developing country universities. Current focus is on provision of education to many students rather than on the quality of the education provided and the usefulness of such education for employers and for self-employment.

    I am also interested in the development impact of PhD research undertaken by developing country Commonwealth Scholars studying in the UK and selection of appropriate indicators to measure the future impact of resources invested by donors in PhD training.
  • Research Projects:

    Capacity Building for Agricultural Innovation Systems, 2015 – 2019

    Action research designed to make agricultural innovation systems in developing countries more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agribusiness and consumers to facilitate the sustainable intensification of agriculture to enhance food security and nutrition.

    Emphasis is on building research institutions and establishing a relationship between research institutions and farmers, particularly women and youth. Capacities to be developed include communication, partnership building negotiation, conflict management, lobbying and advocacy.

    Initial work is to be undertaken in eight countries with aim of developing an effective global mechanism to promote, coordinate and evaluate capacity development approaches to strengthen agricultural innovation systems.
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/1920.html
  • Responsibilities:

    Member of the Athena Swan Working Group Co-Athena Swan Champion, Natural Resources Institute
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3921
Principal Economist, Teaching & Learning Leader
Clare Hopson
  • Qualifications: MSc
  • Biography:

    Clare has worked in plant science for over thirteen years having joined the Natural Resources Institute in November 2017. Clare works at the Natural Resource Institutes postharvest crop laboratories based at The Produce Quality Centre, a collaboration between NRI and NIAB EMR. In her current role she provides vital planning, technical and research support for the successful delivery of national and international, commercial and academic projects e.g. Innovate UK Coolberry, FreshWorks™, Safepod Agritech. On a day to day basis she provides set up, implementation and assessment on a range of storage and shelf life trials. Clare also provides occasional research support to PhD students and to other non-perishable food crop specialists within NRI, including the Nutritional Postharvest Loss Estimation Methodology (NUTRI-P-LOSS) project.

    Previous to this, Clare spent over a decade working at East Malling Research Station and later NIAB EMR. As such she has an extensive experience of working on both top and soft fruit, leaf and root vegetables and ornamental plants and flowers. She has accrued a range of technical and organisational skills, accompanied with essential working knowledge in a number of fields, including plant breeding, entomology, and physiology, applied to academic research, consumer research and commercial farm processes.

    Postharvest quality, plant physiology, crop storage management,
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    Clare is chiefly interested in reducing food and product waste and the effect of storage or shelf life conditions on produce quality. She is also looking forward to expanding her knowledge and skills in the field of plastic alternatives and edible coatings to promote sustainable packaging whilst still ensuring minimal food loss and reduced carbon emissions.

    Clare’s main goal is to support commerce through research, turning theories into practicalities that will support industry needs. With particular consideration to sustainable production alongside reduced losses to support a viable economic framework.
  • Research Projects:

    Commercial trials at the Produce Quality Centre

    NRI’s storage research facilities at the Produce Quality Centre, East Malling are the most extensive research facilities in the UK for trials on controlled atmosphere storage (reduced oxygen and increased CO2 to slow down metabolism and increase storage life). The facilities are used to carry out trials for commercial companies to optimise storage protocols for new varieties of apples and pears and to test sea freight conditions for imported fruit such as avocado. In addition, over the past few years they have been used to investigate novel storage strategies for produce for which controlled atmosphere storage has not traditionally been used. In recent years NRI has carried out trials on a wide range of produce including leeks, asparagus, cabbage and daffodils.

    CoolBerry: Innovations for in-field cooling of soft fruit

    2019-2022. NRI project lead: Richard Colgan. Funded through Innovate UK. Partners: JDCooling Ltd, Berry Gardens Ltd, Scorpion Ltd.

    Removal of field heat from perishable produce is critical for quality and storability. In order to extend storage life, this project is developing a mobile field based cooling-rig, initially for soft fruit, that will enable growers to rapidly remove the field-heat from produce immediately after harvest to below 5°C.

    Prototype cooling-cells constructed at the PQC will be used to optimise the cooling process in terms of rate of cooling, and control of humidity to minimise moisture loss, which can be a major problem during cooling. The design and composition of packaging will be optimised to improve the rate and efficiency of cooling, thereby reducing energy usage. A close partnership with growers during the development of the cooling rig will ensure that the design is optimal to fit with the logistics of complex field harvesting logistics.

    Developing Practical Strategies to Improve Quality and Storage Potential of UK Apples

    2016 – 2021 NRI project lead: Richard Colgan. Funded through AHDB – Horticulture. Partners: NIAB EMR, FAST, Landseer Ltd

    There is evidence that apple fruit with high dry matter content at harvest have better eating quality and also store better. The underlying basis of this relationship needs to be better understood so that it can be manipulated to deliver premium fruit quality. This will be achieved through a combination of a meta-analysis of existing data sets to obtain a greater understanding of the factors controlling both fruit dry matter content and quality, and the development of practical strategies in terms of novel pruning strategies, reflective covers and manipulation of crop load through bud and fruit thinning to help growers to improve the quality of stored apples.

    SafePod: New technology for intelligent control of fresh produce storage

    2015 – 2018 NRI project lead: Debbie Rees. Funded through Innovate (Agritech Catalyst) Partners: Storage Control Systems Ltd, AC Goathams and Son, Avalon Produce Ltd, Sainsbury’s Ltd

    After harvest, apples may be stored for up to 12 months in large controlled atmosphere stores (low temperature, low oxygen and high CO2). The SafePod technology was initially conceived as an environmentally controlled chamber to be placed within commercial apple stores to monitor fruit respiration as an indicator of low oxygen stress (the ratio of CO2 evolution to O2 consumption increases when fruit start to respire anaerobically). However, with its highly sensitive monitoring of respiratory characteristics it has turned out to be a valuable tool for following produce status during storage and predicting physiological deterioration, as well as for evaluating new storage protocols. It has potential for a wider range of produce than apple alone, both commercially and also as a tool for crop research centres and universities.

    The SafePod system was built by Storage Control Systems with scientific support from NRI and in collaboration with Sainsbury’s PLC, AC Goatham & Son, Avalon Produce Ltd. The system is now being trialled by apple growers in the UK and North America, with more than 200 units sold or leased in 2019. This project has been highlighted by BBSRC in an impact case study.

    https://bbsrc.ukri.org/documents/bbsrc-safepod-impact-case-study/

    Bio-based Packaging for Fresh Food: BioFreshPak

    2017-2020 NRI project lead: Debbie Rees. Funded through Newton Bha-Bha. Partners: Nextek Ltd, Solutions 4 Plastic, Brunel University, Earth Champions, Punjab Agricultural University, Manbras Plastics,

    This project is focused on improved packaging materials for the Indian fresh produce supply chain that will be biodegradable and recyclable and will A) reduce wastage by improving the storage stability and shelf life of food during transit between the producer and the urban consumer, B) reduce the level of adulteration via sealable and tamper-evident features, C) reduce urban solid waste from packaging going to landfill, and D) improve health and wellbeing of the population by improved retention of nutritional quality and reducing risk of spoilage in meat or vegetables. To achieve these objectives, the project will develop innovative bio-based hybrid polymer packaging films with selective humidity and permeability control and improved shelf-life performance with enhanced environmental characteristics. The packaging systems will be based on the incorporation and compatibilisation of presently under used agri-waste (tapioca starch recovered as a waste product from starch factories) at low costs into conventional and other bio-based polymers. The treatment of the agri-waste will contribute to reducing the significant cassava waste problems.

    https://www.biofreshpak.global/
  • Responsibilities:

    Clare provides laboratory technical assistance and project support for both commercial and academic research projects. She provides assistance to the Produce Quality Centre Faculty Manager and is responsible for the Oreto compliance of projects. Recently Clare has taken up health and wellbeing roles, providing mental health support for colleagues.
Phone: +44 (0)1732 523 738
Postharvest Technical Assistant
Dr Paula Dominguez Salas
  • Qualifications: BSc, MSc, PhD
  • Biography:

    Dr Paula Dominguez-Salas joined NRI in July 2020. She has a background in veterinary sciences and in food technology (University of Zaragoza), and has an MSc in Agricultural Sciences (University of Zaragoza) and a MSc and a PhD in Global Public Health Nutrition (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LSHTM).

    Paula started research at LSHTM in 2009 and worked until 2013 at the LSHTM Medical Research Council International Nutrition Group. She left LSHTM to work at a joint Royal Veterinary College (RVC)/ International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) position until early 2017. She re-joined LSHTM in 2017 as an Assistant Professor in Nutrition-sensitive agriculture, also as a joint position LSHTM-ILRI. Before working in in academia, she has worked in international organisations, such as Medecins du Monde or European federations.

    Paula´s research has taken place in low- and middle-income countries (West and East Africa and South America), and has focused in maternal and child nutrition. She initially studied the effect of seasonality in maternal nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa and different outcomes, including epigenetic profiles of their offspring and aflatoxin exposure in The Gambia. She later merged her two main interests together and moved to the interface between agriculture, specifically livestock production and animal-source foods, and human nutrition, particularly focusing in livestock value chains, food safety and gender aspects. She is involved in several projects in Kenya and Tanzania related to Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategy design, and to women empowerment among pastoralists. She is also involved in work on urban livestock value chains in Kenya, including a randomised controlled trial to assess the impact of a dairy market intervention in Nairobi, on nutrition. She also participates in the UKRI GCRF Action against stunting Hub, to address the intractable global challenge of child stunting Applying a holistic, Whole Child Approach, and working with communities across India, Indonesia and Senegal.

    Beyond working on a regular basis with multidisciplinar teams at LSHTM, ILRI, RVC and LCIRAH, she collaborates with researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Emory University, Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, University of Nairobi in Kenya and with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
  • Selected Publications:

    Scientific papers:

    • Brouwe, I.D., van Liere, M.J., de Brauw, A., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2021). Reverse thinking: taking a healthy diet perspective towards food systems transformations. Food Security (in press).
    • Ngutu, M., Bukachi, S.A., Muthiru, A.W., Lepine, A., Kadiyala, S., Dominguez-Salas, P. (2021) Food Safety and Animal Source Foods in Low-income Urban Settlements in Nairobi: A Qualitative Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions. BMC Nutrition, July
    • Alarcon, P., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2021) The importance of a food systems approach to low and middle income countries and emerging economies: a review of theories and its relevance for disease control and malnutrition. Frontiers in sustainable Food systems April
    • Muunda, E., Mtimet, N., Schenider, F., Francis, W., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2021) Can Kenyan dairy policy change affect milk allocation to infants? A Best-Worst Scaling approach. Food Policy, February
    • Watts, N., (…) Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2021) The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change responding to converging crises. The Lancet, review Vol 397, issue 10269, January.
    • Alonso, S., Dominguez-Salas, P., Grace, D. (2019) The role of livestock products for nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life. Animal Frontiers, Volume 9, Issue 4.
    • Galiè, A., Webb-Girard, A., Baltenweck, I., Dominguez-Salas, P et al. (2019) Women empowerment, food security and forage in pastoral communities of Tanzania. Global Food Sec, special issue
    • Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2019) Leveraging human nutrition through livestock interventions: perceptions, knowledge, barriers and opportunities in the Sahel. Food Security
    • Watts, N., (…) Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2018) The 2018 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. Lancet, 392.
    • Enahoro, D., Lannerstad, M., Pfeifer, C., Dominguez-Salas, P. (2018) Contributions of livestock-derived foods to nutrient supply under changing demand in low- and middle-income countries. Global Food Security, Vol 19
    • Galiè, A., Teufel, N., Korir, L., Webb, A., Baltenweck, I., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2018) ‘The women’s empowerment in livestock index’. Social Indicators Research.
    • Watts, N., (…) Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2017) T. The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change – 2017 Report. Lancet.
    • Häsler, B., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2017) Where food safety meets nutrition outcomes in livestock and fish value chains: a conceptual approach. Food Sec Aug.
    • Alarcon, P., Murungi, M.K., Muinde, P., Akoko, J., Fèvre, E.M., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2016) Mapping of the beef, sheep and goat-source food systems in Nairobi: a framework for policy and identification of structural vulnerabilities. Agricultural Systems 152: 1–17.
    • Cornelsen, L., Alarcón, P., Häsler, B., Djesika, D.A., Ferguson, E., Fevre, E.M., Grace, D., Dominguez-Salas, P.//Rushton, J. (2016) Cross-sectional study of price and other drivers of demand for animal source foods in peri-urban Nairobi, Kenya. BMC Nutrition, 2:70.
    • Watts, N., (…) Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2016) The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32124-9, Lancet
    • Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2016) Nutritional characterisation of low-income households in deprived areas of Nairobi: socioeconomic, livestock and gender considerations and predictors of malnutrition from a cross-sectional survey. BMC Nutrition, 2:47
    • Kühnen, P., Handke, D., Hennig, B.J., Fulford, A.J., Waterland, R.A., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2016) Interindividual variation in DNA methylation at a POMC metastable epiallele is associated with obesity. Cell Metab, S1550(16)
    • Picchioni, F., Aleksandrowicz, A., Bruce, M.M., Cuevas, S., Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2015) Agri-health research: what have we learned and where to next? Food Security December
    • Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2014) Maternal Nutrition at Conception Modulates DNA Methylation of Human Metastable Epialleles. Nat Comms., 29;5:3746
    • Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2013) DNA methylation potential: dietary intake and blood concentrations of one-carbon metabolites and cofactors in rural African women. Am J Clin Nutr, 97:1217-1227.
    • Dominguez-Salas, P. (2012) et al. Maternal nutritional status, one-carbon metabolism and offspring DNA methylation: A review of current evidence in humans. Proc Nutr Soc, Feb; 71(1):154-65

    Other publications:

    • Gordon, I.J., Alonso, A., Crump, L., Dominguez-Salas, P. and de Garine-Wichatitisky, M. (2020) Chapter 26 on Food Security and Nutrition. One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches. CABI Book
    • Dominguez-Salas, P., Kauffman, D. (2020) Harnessing the potential of livestock to improve nutrition of vulnerable populations. Technical guidance for program planning. FAO, Rome. http://www.fao.org/3/ca7348en/CA7348EN.pdf
    • Tarawali, S., Aronson, D., Baltenweck, I., Dominguez-Salas, P., et al. 2019.White Paper Meat: the future series. Options for the livestock sector in developing and emerging economies to 2030 and beyond. World Economic Forum. January
    • Dominguez-Salas, P., Galiè, A., Omore, A., Omosa, E. and Ouma, E. (2019) Contribution of milk production to food and nutrition security. In: Ferranti, P., Berry, E.M. and Anderson, J.R. (eds), Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, Volume 3. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. pp. 278–291 http://hdl.handle.net/10568/96305
    • Dominguez-Salas, P., Omore, A., Omosa, E. and Ouma, E. (2019) Agrifood systems in low- and middle-income countries: Status and opportunities for smallholder dairy in LMIC. In: Ferranti, P., Berry, E.M. and Anderson, J.R. (eds), Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, Volume 3. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. pp. 326–339. http://hdl.handle.net/10568/97599
    • Grace , D. , Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2018) The influence of livestock-derived foods (LDF) on nutrition during the first 1000 days. Chatham House report.
    • Grace, D., (…), Dominguez-Salas, P. et al. (2018) Working paper on Food Safety Metrics relevant to Low and Middle Income Countries. Agriculture for Nutrition and Health Academy (https://anh-academy.org/sites/default/files/Food%20Safety%20Working%20Paper%20Final_0.pdf; https://anh-academy.org/sites/default/files/FSWG_TechnicalBrief_Final.pdf ).
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    Paula is an interdisciplinary researcher who has a food systems (production/safety/quality) hat, and a maternal and child nutrition hat, with a focus in the Global South.

    Her interest is to overcome some of the challenges of the very complex problem of the provision of healthy diets to the most vulnerable populations, and understand which food-based strategies can be more efficient, within a One Health approach.

    She wants to develop, adapt, test and promote science-based practices, tools and packages that are sustainable and scalable, which can then persuade decision-makers into action, including policies and investments for better nutrition. Examples of research areas are:

    • Dietary substitution effects of specific food-based strategies
    • How can value chains be adapted to prevent double burden of malnutrition
    • How can combinations of interventions enhance impact in nutrition
    • Trade-offs between food safety and nutrition and joint optimisation
    • Role of traditional and new food technology methods to increase access of the poor to healthy diets
    • How can food waste reduction systems contribute to better nutrition
    • Methods to capture diet and food environments and indicators that can assist in understanding these dynamics
    • Lessons from private business for value chain development and nutrition/health messaging
  • Research Projects:
    • DFID/BMGF Drivers of food choice grant: Drivers of demand for animal-source foods in low-income informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya 2019.
    • KRI GCRF Action against stunting Hub, 2018
    • Three separate proposals to DFID/BMGF “Agriculture-Nutrition Impact studies” grant that finally merged into one large dairy proposal: A large project funding RCT on improvement of food safety standards of informal sector milk, in Kenya and India; and two formative research in nutrition education to improve ASF consumption and one on the implications of bans in informal trading of milk, in Kenya and Tanzania) 2016
    • DFID/BMGF Drivers of food choice grant: ‘Understanding the drivers of diet change and food choice among Tanzanian pastoralists to inform policy and practice’ 2016
  • Research Students:

    Lydia O’Meara: The role of food environments in enabling healthy, sustainable diets for rural women and young children: insights from Uganda
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: https://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/8236.html
  • Awards:
    • Member of Scientific Committee of Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy Week (2016-2020)
    • Member of Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy (2016-current)
    • Technical Evaluation Panel on Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (2021)
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID
    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8753-4221
Associate Professor of Food-based Strategies for Nutrition
Professor Apurba Shee
  • Qualifications: BE, MS, PhD
  • Biography:

    Dr Apurba Shee is a Professor of Applied Economics in the Food and Markets Department within the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) at the University of Greenwich and an ESRC Policy Fellow at the UK Ministry of Justice. Apurba holds an M.S. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a PhD in Applied Economics from Penn State University. Before joining NRI in 2017, he worked as an economist for six years in the CGIAR institutions, first at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and then at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability for rural populations in developing countries.

    Apurba's research interests are in the fields of applied microeconomics, development economics, agricultural finance, and applied econometrics. He is an experienced researcher on innovative climate risk financing, adaptation, and food systems resilience. Apurba undertakes research to identify what works in real-world contexts and their social and economic impacts to inform and shape effective public policy. His research relies on experiments and observational data. Having been based in Africa (2012-2017), he has extensive experience conducting research throughout the continent (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast). In addition, he has extensive experience in promoting microfinance and women empowerment collectives in India. His research has been published in leading agricultural economics journals and policy forums.

    He has led or co-led many internationally recognised research projects as the Principal Investigator or a Co-Investigator in the UK, Asia, and Africa. His research projects have been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Apurba is currently leading (Principal Investigator) two major three-year research projects: The project “Economic and Empowerment Impacts of Millet Enterprises by Women Collectives”, funded by 3ie under the Swashakt program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he is leading a large international team of researchers from UK and India. He is co-leading the project “Risk Contingent Credit for Resilience and Food Security” in Kenya and Ethiopia in partnership with IFPRI, funded by GIZ.  

    Apurba has contributed to improved policymaking by translating complex research information through clear communication both in the UK and overseas in addressing economic and social problems by developing innovative evidence-based research. Along with his NRI role, he is an ESRC Policy Fellow at the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ), working across several civil service analyst teams to provide evidence-based policy advice to reduce reoffending and protect the public; specifically, provide expert advice and review various experimentation and evaluation projects to make better decisions to improve justice outcomes in the UK.
  • Selected Publications:
    • Turvey, C. and Shee A. (2023) Inclusive Finance and Agricultural Development in Africa, Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Development. World Bank Handbooks in Development. Edward Elgar. ISBN 978178990386.
    • Shee, A., Ndegwa, M.K., Turvey, C. G. and You, L. (2023) Transforming Food Systems through Risk Contingent Credit in Rural Africa: Development, Experimentation, and Evaluation; Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Book. (In Press)
    • Shee, A., Parmar, A., Rout, S., Strum, B. and Bennett, B. (2023). Assessing the Measurement Methods of postharvest Food Loss and Waste: Opportunities and Challenges, Forthcoming Journal of Enterprise Development and Microfinance
    • Oyetunde-Usman, Z. and Shee, A. Abdoulaye, T. (2023). Does Simultaneous Adoption of Drought Tolerant Maize Varieties and Manure Impact Productivity and Welfare Outcomes? Evidence from Rural Nigeria Forthcoming Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics.
    • Ngwenyama, P., Siziba, S., Nyanga, LK., Stathers, T., Bechoff, A.,Shee, A., and Mvumi, BM. (2023). Determinants of smallholder farmers’ maize grain storage protection practices and understanding of the nutritional aspects of grain postharvest losses. Forthcoming Food Security
    • Bechoff, A., Shee, A., Mvumi, B. et al. (2022). Prediction of nutritional postharvest losses along the crop value chain: a case study with three key food-security crops in sub-Saharan Food Security https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01238-9
    • Ndegwa, M.K., Shee, A., Turvey, C. G. and You, L. (2021) Sequenced crop evapotranspiration and water requirement in developing a multi-trigger rainfall index insurance and risk-contingent credit. Weather, Climate, and Society. 14(1): 19-38.
    • Shee, A., Turvey, C., and Marr, A. (2020). Heterogeneous Demand and Supply for an Insurance-Linked Credit Product in Kenya: A Stated Choice Experiment Approach Journal of Agricultural Economics https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12401
    • Ndegwa, M.K., Shee, A., Turvey, C.G., You, L. (2019). Uptake of Insurance-Embedded Credit in Presence of Credit Rationing: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Kenya, Agricultural Finance Review, https://doi/10.1108/AFR-10-2019-0116
    • Shee, A., Azzarri, C., Haile, B. (2020). Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Improved Agricultural Technologies: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Tanzania. Sustainability, 12, 216. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010216
    • Turvey, C.G., Shee, A., and Marr, A. (2019) Addressing Fractional Dimensionality in the Application of Weather Index Insurance and Climate Risk Financing in Agricultural Development: A Dynamic Triggering Approach. Weather, Climate and Society, https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0014.1
    • Shee, A., Mayanja, S., Simba, E., Stathers, T., Bechoff, A., and Bennett, B. (2019). Determinants of postharvest losses along smallholder producers maize and sweetpotato value chains: An ordered probit analysis Food Security, 11: 1101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00949-4
    • Shee, A., Turvey, C., and You, L. (2019). Design and Rating of Risk-Contingent Credit for Balancing Business and Financial Risks for Kenyan Farmers. Applied Economics, 51:50, 5447-5465
    • Rajandran, S., Afari-Sefa, V., Shee, A., Bekunda, M., Dominick, I. and Lukumy, P. (2017). Does crop diversity contribute to dietary diversity? Evidence from integration of vegetables into maize-based farming systems in Tanzania. Agriculture & Food Security 6:50
    • Shee, A. and Stefanou, S. E. (2016). Bounded Learning-by-doing and Sources of Firm Level Productivity Growth in Colombian Food Manufacturing Industry. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 46(2): 185-197
    • Woodard, J., Shee, A., and Mude, A. (2016) A Spatial Econometric Approach to Designing and Rating Scalable Index Insurance in the Presence of Missing Data, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance-Issues and Practice, 41(2): 259-279
    • Shee, A. and Stefanou, S. E. (2015). Endogeneity Corrected Stochastic Production Frontier and Technical Efficiency. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 97(3): 939-952
    • Shee, A., Turvey, C. G. and Woodard, J. A. (2015). Field Study for Assessing Risk-Contingent Credit for Kenyan Pastoralists and Dairy Farmers. Agricultural Finance Review 75 (3): 330-348
    • Vrieling, A., Meroni, M., Shee, A., Mude, A. Woodard, J. de Bie, Rambold, F. (2014). Historical Extension of Aggregated NDVI from Operational Products for Livestock Insurance in Kenya. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 28 (238-251).
    • Leeuw, J.D., Vrieling, A., Shee, A., Atzberger, C., Hadgu, K.M., Biradar, C., Keah, H., Turvey, C. (2014). The Potential and Uptake of Remote Sensing in Insurance: a review. Remote Sensing 6, no.11: 10888-10912
    • Shee, A. and Turvey, C. G. (2012). Collateral Free Lending with Risk-Contingent Credit for Agricultural Development: Indemnifying Loans against Pulse Crop Price Risk in India. Agricultural Economics 43, 561-574

    Recent Conference Presentations

    • Agricultural and Applied Economics Association conference (AAEA), Farmer preferences for adopting drought-tolerant maize varieties: evidence from a choice experiment in Nigeria, Aug 16, 2021 Online
    • Agricultural and Applied Economics Association conference (AAEA), Does Simultaneous Adoption of Drought Tolerant Maize Varieties and Organic Manure Impact Productivity and Welfare Outcomes of Farm-households in Nigeria? Aug 17, 2021 Online
    • STFC Food Network+ 4th Annual Conference, Developing Price Risk-Protected Warehouse Receipt System in Promoting Resilient Food Supply Chains in Africa, 27 May 2021 Online
    • International Seminar on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa, FaNSI Conference (Keynote speech) “Assessing the Measurement Methods of Food Loss and Waste: Opportunities and Challenges” 27 Jn 2021 Online
    • AAEA 2019 conference “Heterogeneous Demand and Supply for an Insurance-Linked Credit Product in Kenya: A Stated Choice Experiment Approach” Jul 22, 2019, Atlanta, USA
    • Agricultural Economics Society Conference 2019 “Fractional Dimensionality of Weather and a New Approach to Risk Financing in Agriculture: Evidence from Kenya” Apr 15, 2019, Warwick, UK
    • AAEA 2018 conference “Heterogeneous Impacts of Credit Rationing on Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Kenya” Aug 6, 2018, Washington DC, USA
    • ICAE 2018 conference (session chair and presenter) “Design and Rating of Risk-Contingent Credit for Balancing Business and Financial Risks for Kenyan Farmers” Jul 31, 2018, Vancouver
    • Innovate for Climate Conference (I4C) (Presenter and panel discussion) “Risk-Contingent Credit: An Innovative Solution for Climate Risk Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa” May 23, 2018, Frankfurt, Germany
    • UTK Research Seminar Presentation “Heterogeneous Impacts of Credit Rationing on Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Tanzania” University of Tennessee, Jan 10, 2017 Knoxville, TN, USA
    • International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) TW13 Inception Workshop, “Uptake and Evaluation of Innovative Insurance Embedded Credit for Promoting Resilience and Livelihoods for Smallholder maize and wheat farmers in Kenya” 3-4 November 2016, New Delhi, India
    • Africa RISING ESA Project Phase 1 Legacy Review Meeting, Presented two papers “Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Improved Agricultural Technologies: Results from Field Experiment in Tanzania” and “Heterogeneous Impacts of Credit Constraints in the Presence of Risk Rationing: Evidence from Tanzania” 30 June- 2 July 2016, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    • IFPRI RISE Research Day “Heterogeneous impacts of credit constraints in the presence of risk rationing” March 16, 2016 Washington DC
    • SCC-76 Annual Conference on Economics and Management of Risks in Agriculture and Natural Resources, “Heterogeneous impacts of credit constraints in the presence of risk rationing” 17-19 March 2016 Florida, USA
    • Africa RISING West Africa Project Annual Review and Planning Meeting, “Africa RISING Baseline Survey Data Summary for Ghana and Mali” 24 March 2015, Accra, Ghana
  • Research / Scholarly Interests:

    • Poverty, agricultural development and sustainable intensification

    • Research/Scholarly InterestsAgricultural Finance and Production Economics

    • Innovative microinsurance and risk-contingent credit instruments

    • Impact Evaluation of socio-economic programmes

    • Agriculture and food value chain analysis

    • Applied Econometrics  
  • Research Projects:
    • Principal Investigator, ESRC Policy Fellowship; “Ministry of Justice - Experimentation and Evaluation Fellowship” 2022- Current and Previous Funded Research Projects
    • Principal Investigator, “Economic and Empowerment Impacts of Millet Processing and Value Addition Enterprises by Women SHGs in Tribal Areas of Odisha” funded by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2020-  
    • Principal Investigator, “Developing Price Risk-Protected Warehouse Receipt System in Promoting Resilient Food Supply Chains in Africa” funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Food Network+, 2020-2021
    • Project co-leader and Co-Principal Investigator, “Promoting Resilience and Food Security through Risk-Contingent Credit in Africa” funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, 2020-
    • Project leader and Principal Investigator, Uptake and Evaluation of Innovative Insurance Linked Credit for Promoting Resilience and Livelihoods for Farmers in Kenya, 2017-
    • Project co-leader and Principal Investigator, Satellite Technologies, Innovative and Smart Financing for Food Security (SATISFy), 2016 – Aug 2017
    • Monitoring and evaluation specialist, Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) projects in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mali, 2015-17
    • Principal Investigator, “Piloting Risk-Contingent Credit for Weather and Market Price Risks in Kenya”, funded by BASIS Assets and Market Access Collaboration Research Support Program (USAID), 2013-14
    • Product design lead, Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) in arid and semi-arid regions of Northern Kenya, 2012-15
  • Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) link: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/view/authors/6390.html
  • Responsibilities:

    Responsibilities include implementation and delivery of externally funded projects, supervising PhD students and teaching.
  • Awards:

    External Recognition

    • Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) Advisory Committee member, 2023-
    • Associate Editor/ Editorial Board– Agricultural Finance Review, 2015- Present External Recognition
    • National Research Committee (NRC) Lead Reviewer, 2022-
    • Membership affiliation – UK Evaluation Society, American Economic Association (AEA), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development (AIARD), International Association for Agricultural Economists (IAAE), American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA)
    • Reviewer- Journal of Applied Econometrics, World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Finance Review, Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics, Food Security, AAEA Annual meeting 2017 contributed papers, ICAE 2018 contributed papers

    Awards

    • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Policy Fellow at the UK Ministry of Justice, 2022
    • University of Greenwich Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship, 2018
    • Ford Foundation International Fellow, 2005
    • AIARD (Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development) Future Leaders Scholarship, 2009
    • Competitive International Tuition Grant-in-Aid, Penn State University, 2011
    • Gamma Sigma Delta, The Honor Society of Agriculture, 2011
    • Penn State nominee for the AAEA Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2013
  • External Profiles:

    ORCID

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1836-9637
Phone: +44 (0)1634 88 3042
Professor of Applied Economics

Page 5 of 17

Subcategories