Borlaug LEAP Alumna Dr. Sudha Narayanan is an Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai. She earlier obtained a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University in 2011, specializing in agricultural and development economics. The LEAP Fellowship enabled Sudha to undertake a project titled Choosing Farmers: Selection and Screening Mechanisms in Contract Farming Schemes in Southern India.  This project was part of the author’s doctoral dissertation, which examines aspects of contract farming practice in southern India. It is built around a survey of farmers, which was undertaken between January 2009 and January 2010. The work was done with the support and mentorship of Bart Minten at the International Food Policy Research Institute (New Delhi Office) and M.Chandrasekaran, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore.

Sudha's research interests straddle agriculture, food and nutrition policy, and human development in India. She is particularly interested in survey-based research using microeconometric approaches to understand broader questions of agrarian change and state delivery systems for nutrition security. Her current research focuses on contract farming, technology adoption in agriculture, public policies for food security and employment and agriculture-nutrition linkages. At IGIDR she supervises research students working on these themes and teaches impact evaluation.

Sudha has worked with the Tata Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative of Cornell University at IFPRI in Washington D.C., among other organizations. She has also worked with the Right to Food Campaign in India, where she provided research support to the Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court of India to monitor the implementation of orders issued in connection with the Right to Food case.  Her past works include a book coauthored with Ashok Gulati titled “The Subsidy Syndrome in Indian Agriculture” published by the Oxford University Press, New Delhi.  She has published in high impact journals within India, a strategy that reflects her strong preference for action-oriented research, and has also written in business dailies such as Mint, Business Line and the Economic Times. Her academic work has also been published in international peer-reviewed journals.