Postdoctoral Research Associate

Department of Geography and Institute of Sustainable Food

The University of Sheffield

Dr Martin Watts, from the Department of Geography and Institute of Sustainable Food, arrived in Sheffield in July 2021 to work on the INFUSION project as Postdoctoral Research Associate. The project is in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Indian School of Business, and India’s National Institute of Nutrition. Before joining the University of Sheffield, Martin completed his PhD at the University of Southampton, which examined the potential effect of
climate change on smallholders in tropical agroforestry systems in Tanzania.

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

I am an interdisciplinary geographer whose research interests and background cut across the broad themes of agricultural and food systems, value chains, climate resilience, and the nutrition and well-being outcomes of marginalised groups in rural areas of low-mid-income countries. In addition to these socioeconomic outcomes, I am also interested in the environmental aspects of food systems, including their agroecological processes and provisioning of ecosystem services, how they are mediated by climate, and how these environmental aspects interact with humans’ social systems (socio-ecological systems) to influence communities’ food and nutrition security. In general, I am a mixed-methods researcher and use various methods ranging from more advanced statistical techniques and analysis to more exploratory qualitative participatory research approaches. Related to
these interests, my current research for INFUSION centres on improving the availability, accessibility, diversity, and affordability of nutrient-dense foods for rural marginalised communities in India using market-based interventions that aim to be synergistic in environmental sustainability, social equity, and climate resilience.

What are you focusing on in the INFUSION project?

My work for INFUSION currently focuses on the ‘Didi Haats’ market intervention feasibility study, which I am working on alongside Dr Gregory Cooper and the Government of Bihar’s JEEViKA (Bihar’s Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society) program. Succeeding a month of qualitative formative research last summer, we designed these gender and nutrition-sensitive rural markets, which entail specific design features and aspects that aim to provide remote and socioeconomically marginalised communities with access to a range of affordable nutrient-dense foods (NDFs) while simultaneously providing a more welfare-enhancing experience for women consumers and vendors. In addition, our Didi Haats intervention seeks to improve the safety and hygiene of NDFs sold in the market and reduce the amount of food waste by providing services such as food vendor training, cold storage units, raised platforms and composting bins, amongst other nutrition-sensitive features.
To ascertain whether Didi Haats is feasible in practice and, in turn, set plans for scaling our intervention, Dr Cooper and I are undertaking a ‘process evaluation’ study of several pilot Didi Haats, using a mixed-methods approach that encompasses a wide range of quantitative, e.g., panel survey, and qualitative, e.g., photovoice, methods. The objectives of our process evaluation are to understand the potential of our Didi Haats to contribute to our nutrition and gender-sensitive outcomes – improved NDF availability and accessibility, increased NDF demand via behaviour change, improved gender-sensitivity, reduced food waste, and improved food hygiene – the fidelity of Didi Haats in practice, any variation in efficacy across different contexts and recognise how its implementation can be best optimised.
In addition, Prof Shankar, Dr Cooper and I are currently devising INFUSION’s research plans in our other Indian state of interest, Odisha. This research aims to explore the potential for NDF supply chains and markets in Odisha in climate-vulnerable locations and examines their climate resilience using a set of developed resilience indicators and a systems thinking research approach. Currently, the majority of research and knowledge concerning climate resilience in food systems in a low- and mid-income country context focuses on agricultural production technology, e.g., drought-resistance seed varieties. However, very little is known about the resilience of supply chains and markets and, therefore, how the resilience of food systems can be enhanced as a whole.

What excites you about your work on INFUSION?

Coming straight from a PhD that involved conducting research at a local case study basis, I am excited about working with larger stakeholders and decision-makers such as JEEViKA and the Government of Odisha. As well as gaining valuable experience working alongside such senior stakeholders, I am excited about designing and conducting research that has a strong possibility of directly feeding into policy-making, with the potential to benefit the livelihoods and nutrition of thousands of marginalised individuals and groups. Furthermore, given the multi-disciplinary nature of the INFUSION project, I am excited to be working with and learning from academics from a range of disciplines beyond geography, including those from economics and nutrition backgrounds. As a researcher who has spent the last few years studying farmers’ climate resilience from the agricultural production side of the agri-food system, I am really excited to undertake the research in Odisha that applies the concept to the food supply and market side of the food system, especially with so little currently known in this research area.
Finally, having previously visited the Indian Sundarbans for my masters dissertation research, I am really looking forward to visiting and exploring more of India, its different states, cultures and environments.

Tell us a fun fact about you

I can jump over six meters and run the 100 metres in less than eleven and a half seconds. I can also smash an Indian-style buffet and have successfully completed several food-eating challenges in the UK.