Research
Water Scarcity
How do people and societies respond when water begins to run out? Water scarcity is expected to increase substantially over the coming decades, and the hypothesised reactions range between smooth technological adaptations to waves of environmental migration. These studies attempt to bring some evidence to the debate.
Northern Gujarat, India
A natural experiment that creates exogenous geological variation in the rate of groundwater depletion can help study how farmers react when water runs out.
Project completed.
Karnataka, India
A persistent drought and intensive withdrawals are rapidly depleting groundwater aquifers. Are farmers able to adapt, either through agricultural technology or by leaving farming?
Project completed.
Increasing the Productivity of Smallholder Farmers
The majority of the world's rural poor are smallholder farmers. Helping these farmers to increase their productivity and apply improved cultivation technologies would go a long way to reduce poverty and meet growing global demand for food. These projects examine past or new models of smallholder development around the world.
Can groups of women farmers achieve sustained benefits from drip irrigation?
Project interrupted.
Senegal
What happens when a program to disseminate improved seeds is phased out?
Project completed.
Uganda
Did the global diffusion of modern seed varieties improve children's health? We use data on 600,000 births to investigate.
Project completed.
The Green Revolution
Nepal
Thousands of farmers intern in Israeli farms every year. Selection into the program through a lottery in Nepal allows an evaluation of the impacts of the program on farming back home.
Project in progress.
The Impacts of Climate Change
The majority of the world's rural poor are smallholder farmers. Helping these farmers to increase their productivity and apply improved cultivation technologies would go a long way to reduce poverty and meet growing global demand for food. These projects examine past or new models of smallholder development around the world.
Low amounts of rainfall are bad for yields. How important is the daily distribution of rainfall for grain yields in India?
Project completed.
Rainfall Variability
Rainfall Variability
Ecuador
Being in-utero during abnormally hot periods can have long-term impacts on human capital and earnings.
Project completed.
Smallholders and
Climate Change
How many smallholder farmers will actually be around in 2050? How many will experience the worst future impacts of climate change?
Project completed.
Paper under review.
Migration in Mexico
Drought increases migration between Mexico and the U.S. Is it because of agricultural income shocks?
Project completed.
Paper under review.
Crime in India
Do climatic anomalies increase crime rates in India? What is the mechanism?
Project 1 completed.
Published paper: national scale district level analysis.
Project 2 completed.
Working paper: police station scale analysis in Karnataka.
Farmer Suicides in India
Why do climatic anomalies increase suicide rates in India?
Project completed.
Sustainable Agriculture
To become sustainable, agriculture worldwide must learn to manage with less water, energy, fertilizer and pesticides.
