Rajkhowa, P and Chakrabarti, S. (2024).Temperature and children's dietary diversity: Evidence from India. Food Policy. (Link)
Rajkhowa, P. (2024). From subsistence to market-oriented farming: The role of groundwater irrigation in smallholder agriculture in eastern India. Food Security.(Link)
Rajkhowa,P., and Baumüller, H. (2024). Assessing the potential of ICTs to increase land and labor productivity in agriculture: Global and regional perspectives. Journal of Agricultural Economics.(Link)
Rajkhowa,P., and Kornher, L. (2023). Effects of electronic markets on prices, spikes in prices, and price dispersion: A case study of the tea market in India. Agribusiness. (Link)
Rajkhowa, P., and Qaim, M. (2022). Mobile phones, women’s physical mobility, and contraceptive use in India. Social Science & Medicine. (Link)
Rajkhowa, P., and Kornher, L. (2022). COVID-19 and distortions in urban food market in India. Indian Economic Review. (Link)
Rajkhowa, P., and Qaim, M. (2022). Mobile phones, off-farm employment, and household income in rural India. Journal of Agricultural Economics. (Link)
Rajkhowa, P., and Qaim, M. (2021). Personalized digital extension services and agricultural performance: Evidence from smallholder farmers in India. PLoS ONE .(Link)
Rajkhowa, P., and Kubik, Z. (2021). Revisiting the relationship between farm mechanization and labour requirement in India. Indian Economic Review. (Link)
Birthal, P. S., Chand, R., Joshi, P. K., Saxena, R., Rajkhowa, P., Khan, M. T., Khan, M. A., & Chaudhary, K. R. (2017). Formal versus informal: Efficiency, inclusiveness, and financing of dairy value chains in Indian Punjab. Journal of Rural Studies. (Link)
Chakrabarti, S., and Rajkhowa, P. (2015). What is the cost of providing one rupee of support to the poor? Economic and Political Weekly. (Link)
Working Papers
Geographical Location and Profitability of Farmer Producer Companies: Evidence from India (with Mathew Abraham, Andaleeb Rahman, and Prabhu Pingali)
Abstract: Aggregation of farmers in the form of Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) is increasingly being promoted across the low- and middle-income countries to ensure economic viability of smallholder agriculture. FPCs are expected to achieve economies of scale, enhance bargaining power, and improve market access; however, despite these potential advantages, many of them fail to succeed. In this paper, we investigate how proximity to town influences the financial sustainability of FPCs. We further assess how this association is conditional on the organizational characteristics of the FPCs. This paper builds a novel dataset collating financial reports of all registered FPCs in India, in existence between 2019 and 2024. Matching each of the FPCs to its nearest town—to measure market access—and leveraging upon the historical timing of railway construction as an instrumental variable (IV) strategy, we find that every kilometre increase in remoteness reduces the probability of an FPC breaking-even by 12 percentage points. In terms of the organizational heterogeneity, smaller and women-led FPCs are affected more by remoteness, and the negative effect is more pronounced among FPCs with predominantly young or older governing board members. Overall, our findings highlight the inequality among FPCs that arises from their geographical location and organizational structure, with important implications for the sustainability of these aggregation models.
Understanding Climate Risk Attitudes and Sustainable Practice Adoption in Smallholder Systems in Kenya (with Giulia Zane, Marie-Charlotte Buisson and Michael Kinyua)
Abstract:Smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to climate variability that threatens agricultural productivity and household livelihoods. Sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) are widely recognized as a key pathway for sustaining yields, conserving natural resources, and enhancing climate resilience. While the technology adoption literature has documented the role of structural and socioeconomic constraints, the behavioral mechanisms through which climate risk perceptions shape adoption decisions remain underexplored. A key limitation of existing research is its tendency to conflate two conceptually distinct dimensions of climate risk perception: farmers' beliefs about their own exposure to climate hazards and their subjective worry about climate-related threats. Using survey data from farm households in Kenya's Central Highlands, this study examines how these two dimensions of climate risk perception are associated with the adoption of SAPs. Three main findings emerge. First, subjective climate worry, not beliefs about exposure, is the primary behavioral driver of SAP adoption, and the relationship is non-linear: adoption increases substantially only once worry crosses a high threshold of perceived severity. Second, heterogeneity analyses reveal that the perception-adoption relationship is concentrated among male-managed plots and small farms; for female-managed plots and larger farms, structural constraints and education dominate adoption decisions, and climate risk communication alone is insufficient to trigger behavioral change. Third, not all SAPs respond equally to climate worry: organic input use and soil and water conservation are sensitive to high levels of concern, while resource-intensive practices such as irrigation, no-tillage, and intercropping are not. The findings highlight the need for context-sensitive adaptation strategies that combine targeted risk communication with structural interventions, tailored to farmers' gender, plot scale, and the specific practices being promoted.
Integrated Aquaculture–Agriculture and Household Economic Outcomes : Evidence from Wastewater Wetlands in India (with Avinandan Taron and Marie-Charlotte Buisson)
Abstract:Livelihood diversification constitutes an important strategy through which smallholder households’ buffer themselves against economic, environmental, and market uncertainties. Diversification can take various forms, including engagement in off-farm employment, and integration of complementary production systems such as agriculture and aquaculture amongst others. While a growing body of literature has documented the role of livelihood diversification via off-farm or non-farm employment in improving household welfare, relatively less attention has been paid to Integrated Aquaculture-Agriculture (IAA) systems, which combine fish and agricultural production, especially in peri-urban, wastewater-fed systems. This study estimates the effects of IAA participation on household income, expenditure and asset accumulation among households in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) in India, the world's only large-scale, formally functioning wastewater-fed aquaculture system and a Ramsar site. Using propensity score matching and an inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) approach on a sample of 600 households combined with Indian Census and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) facilities dataset, we find that IAA significantly improves household economic outcomes, with participating households earning Rs. 17,000–22,000 (USD 195–252) more annually, spending Rs. 3,000–4,500 (USD 34–52) more per month and accumulating substantially greater assets. Results are robust to hidden bias, omitted variable bias (Oster's δ bounds), and falsification tests.
Evaluating the Impact of Water Bunds on Vegetation and Soil Moisture in Semi-Arid Kenya: Evidence from a Staggered Difference-in-Differences Design (with Marie-Charlotte Buisson, Afua Owusu and Giulia Zane)
Abstract: Land degradation in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa increasingly threatens ecosystem functioning and rural livelihoods. Water bunds—simple earthen structures designed to slow runoff and enhance water infiltration—have been widely promoted as a low-cost, nature-based restoration strategy, yet robust causal evidence on their environmental impacts remains limited. This study assesses the effects of water bund interventions implemented across 32 project sites in Kenya, where approximately 689,000 bunds were constructed between 2016 and 2025, using a remote-sensing-based impact evaluation. We employ a spatial panel design based on a 1 × 1 km grid observed annually from 2014 to 2025, with treatment defined at the grid level by the presence of bunds. Control units (never-treated grids) are selected using propensity score matching with a nearest-neighbour algorithm to ensure comparability on pre-intervention characteristics, including rainfall, temperature, night-time lights, and soil moisture. Environmental outcomes—specifically vegetation greenness (NDVI) and soil moisture (surface and subsurface)—are estimated using a staggered event-study Difference-in-Differences framework following Callaway and Sant’Anna estimator. The results indicate that water bund construction significantly improves vegetation greenness and soil moisture in treated areas. On average, water bunds increased NDVI by 3.0%, topsoil moisture by 1.0%, and subsurface soil moisture by 1.4% relative to pre-treatment levels. Dynamic treatment effects show no evidence of pre-treatment trends for NDVI and topsoil moisture, while impacts evolve over time: NDVI declines in the construction year, likely due to land disturbance, before increasing steadily to about 12% above baseline by the fifth year. Soil moisture responds immediately following construction and remains elevated for two to three years, indicating that water bunds generate sustained improvements in water retention and vegetation recovery.
A High-Resolution Panel Regression Framework for Estimating Drought-Related Economic Losses and the Drought Finance Gap: Evidence from Maharashtra, India (with Giriraj Amarnath)
Abstract: Quantifying the economic impacts of drought remains challenging due to limited availability of spatially disaggregated economic data, particularly in developing regions. This study develops a high-resolution framework to estimate drought-related economic losses by integrating Earth observation and gridded economic datasets. We combine SPI-3 drought indicators, satellite-derived night-time lights, and gridded GDP data to estimate the economic impacts of severe droughts across 5 km × 5 km grid cells in Maharashtra, India, during 2000–2022. Panel models are used to estimate drought-induced changes in night-time economic activity, which are translated into monetary losses using GDP–night-time light elasticities. Results show a strong relationship between night-time lights and economic activity, with pooled and between estimators yielding elasticities of approximately 1.5, while fixed-effects estimates capture smaller within-grid temporal responses. Severe droughts are associated with significant declines in night-time lights, indicating localized economic contractions. Accounting for drought probability, expected annual economic losses average USD 43–46 thousand (2017 PPP) per grid cell. Aggregating grid-level estimates across Maharashtra, the total expected annual economic exposure ranges from approximately USD 0.20 billion to14.06 billion in2017 PPP terms, equivalent to ₹413–29,034 crore in 2017 PPP terms, depending on the elasticity specification used. The findings demonstrate the value of integrating earth observation and gridded economic data to quantify spatially explicit drought risks and identify locations with high levels of economic exposure. By establishing the scale and spatial distribution of expected drought losses, the framework provides an evidence base for assessing the gap between economic risk and the financing currently available for drought preparedness, adaptation, anticipatory action, insurance, and recovery. It can therefore support the prioritization and targeting of public, private, and risk-transfer finance to help close the drought finance gap.
Water Users Association Governance Index (WUAGI): A Multi-Dimensional Diagnostic Tool to Assess and Improve Water Governance (with Alok Sikka)
Abstract: Existing assessments of irrigation performance largely focus on technical indicators and fail to adequately capture the institutional, participatory, and equity dimensions of water governance. This paper develops the Water Users Association Governance Index (WUAGI), a multidimensional, survey-based index designed to measure governance performance, institutional effectiveness, and inclusion within Water User Associations (WUAs). Drawing on the Alkire–Foster methodology and inspired by multidimensional frameworks such as the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), the WUAGI measures governance deprivation across six domains: water delivery and performance, member awareness, participation and collective action, perceived governance quality, institutional legitimacy and women’s participation, and social capital. Using primary survey data collected from 833 WUA members across 4 WUAs in Odisha, India, the index captures both the incidence and intensity of governance deprivation and can be disaggregated by dimension and WUA to identify key governance gaps. The WUAGI is designed as a practical diagnostic and decision-support tool that enables policymakers and practitioners to identify priority areas for intervention, strengthen participatory irrigation management, and monitor governance outcomes over time. By moving beyond conventional technical metrics and macro-level governance indicators, the WUAGI provides a more comprehensive and locally grounded framework for assessing water governance performance.
Work in Progress
Advancing climate resiliency in agriculture systems in Chhattisgarh.
Water Binding Constraint in Kenya
Sustaining Circular Livelihoods: A Qualitative Analysis of the Wastewater Aquaculture Value Chain in the East Kolkata Wetlands. (Link).
Making Rapid Strides-Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh-Sources, Drivers and Policy Lessons (with Ashok Gulati and Pravesh Sharma) (Link)
Unleashing Bihar's agriculture potential: Sources and drivers of agriculture growth (with Anwarul Hoda and Ashok Gulati) (Link)
Transforming agriculture in Odisha: Sources and drivers of agriculture growth (with Anwarul Hoda and Ashok Gulati) (Link)
Gulati, A., Rajkhowa, P., Roy, R., and Sharma, P. Performance of Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh. In: Gulati A., Roy R., Saini S. (eds) Revitalizing Indian Agriculture and Boosting Farmer Incomes. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer. (Link)
Hoda A., Gulati A., Jose S., and Rajkhowa P. (2021) Sources and Drivers of Agricultural Growth in Bihar. In: Gulati A., Roy R., Saini S. (eds) Revitalizing Indian Agriculture and Boosting Farmer Incomes. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer. (Link)
Hoda A., Gulati A., Wardhan H., and Rajkhowa P. (2021) Drivers of Agricultural Growth in Odisha. In: Gulati A., Roy R., Saini S. (eds) Revitalizing Indian Agriculture and Boosting Farmer Incomes. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer. (Link)
Birthal, P. S., Chand, R., Joshi, P. K., Saxena, R., Rajkhowa, P., Khan, M. T., Khan, M. A., and Chaudhary, K. R. (2017). Formal versus informal: Efficiency, inclusiveness, and financing of dairy value chains in Indian Punjab. In: Mani G., Joshi P., Ashok M. (eds) Financing Agriculture Value Chains in India. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer. (Link)
Leslie Verteramo Chiu and Pallavi Rajkhowa (2023). How soybean FPOs can use futures contracts to manage risk (Link).
Pallavi Rajkhowa and Leslie Verteramo Chiu (2023). Soybean value chains and market efficiency: Lessons from a field visit to FPOs in Latur (Link)
Pallavi Rajkhowa. (2021). Using personalized digital extension services to improve agriculture performance. In Rural21 (Link)
Ashok Gulati and Pallavi Rajkhowa (2016). From plate to plough: Some Punjab lessons for Odisha. In Indian Express. (Link)