Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Geography, The University of Sheffield

Anjali is an agricultural and development economist researching the intersection of food systems transformation and malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Before joining INFUSION at Sheffield in July 2023, Anjali was an Innovative Metrics and Measures for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA) career development Fellow at the University of Goettingen, Germany and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), South Asia Region (SAR), New Delhi, India.#

What is your research background and what are your current research interests?

As an applied economist, I conduct interdisciplinary research to understand the complexities of malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries. My research explores how individual and societal socioeconomic factors interact with their environment in determining malnutrition through complex pathways. I am particularly interested in comprehending the implications of food production system transformations, trade-offs in decision-making in production (e.g., labor allocation to farm vs. off-farm
employment) and consumption (e.g., what, where, and how much to consume) activities, social interactions (e.g., social networks, gender, culture, individual/collective history), and external shocks (e.g., climate change, pandemic, conflicts) on nutritional wellbeing. My research so far has shown that under such conditions complex and non-linear patterns emerge and that updated conceptual and methodological frameworks are necessary to fully account for the rapidly changing malnutrition
burdens. To this end, I aim to utilize the most appropriate empirical frameworks that offer sufficient flexibility to capture all the complexities that emerge from the factors determining malnutrition. Finally, encompassing all these factors I am interested in scaling up the findings of my research in developing regional models of malnutrition and public health.

What are you focusing on in the INFUSION project?

Within INFUSION I am leading the market-based research activities of Workstream One. This focuses on harnessing the rural food markets to improve nutrition through comprehending the fundamental aspects of the structure, conduct, and performance of rural food markets and their role in the sustainable and equitable supply of nutrient-dense foods among the rural poor in India.
To this end, I (along with the INFUSION’s team of researchers) am working to establish a concurrent high-frequency lean data collection mechanism to regularly collect prices and arrival quantities for a set of nutrient-dense foods from 300 food markets spatially distributed across the two districts in Bihar, India for one year. Using this comprehensive market data, I aim to conduct various data analyses to better understand the role of rural markets in the nutrition of the rural poor, how these rural food
markets need strengthening, and what are the complementary actions required to increase the consumption of the nutrient-dense foods among the marginalized and vulnerable groups in rural India. In addition, the objective of this high-frequency data collection activity is to demonstrate its usefulness for policymakers to mainstream and scale up by the Government of Bihar.

What excites you about your work on INFUSION?

As an early career researcher in agricultural and development economics, I aim to engage in innovative research activities that translate into rigorous policies and interventions that impact communities. The interdisciplinary and mixed-method approach of research proposed within INFUSION presents me with a perfect platform to engage in research that has an impact. I am particularly looking forward to using flexible methodological frameworks to empirically estimate the non-linear and complex patterns that emerge due to the intersection of trade-offs in decision-making, food environment, and nutrition in the context of rural Bihar. In addition to the state-of-the-art resources and mentorship to conduct research to understand the ways in which rural food markets can be leveraged to improve the sustainable and equitable consumption of nutrient-dense foods among the rural poor, INFUSION offers several opportunities to interact with the front-line policymakers in the Government of Bihar.
Multiple Workstreams of INFUSION require working closely with the stakeholders of the Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (JEEViKA) to work together on potentially scaling up the high-frequency market data collection activity and to co-design and implement the two interventions: (i) a feasibility study of the “Didi Haat” and (ii) a randomized control trial of the “Nutrition Security Fund”. This provides a unique opportunity to contribute to research and outreach activities that critically impact the lives
of people at large.

Tell us a fun fact about you

I am a huge fan of the TV series “Big Bang Theory” and often talk about “how Sheldon Cooper would react to similar things/situations” when I am conversing with colleagues.