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.
Climate Risk Perception and Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Insights from Kenya’s Central Highlands (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. Identifying the factors that shape adoption decisions is therefore critical for designing effective adaptation strategies. While existing literature has largely emphasized socio-economic determinants of technology adoption, the role of behavioral factors, particularly climate risk perceptions, remains comparatively underexplored. Using cross-sectional survey data from the Central Highlands of Kenya and a Poisson regression framework, this study examines how farmers’ climate risk perceptions are associated with the adoption of SAPs and identifies which types of practices are most responsive to climate concerns. The results reveal a non-linear relationship between climate risk perception and adoption, with significant increases in adoption occurring only at high levels of perceived climate concern. Importantly, exposure to climate shocks alone does not appear sufficient to induce behavioral change; rather, adoption responds to the perception of these shocks as serious threats. We further highlight heterogeneity in these relationships across gender of decision maker and plot size: adoption is more responsive to climate concerns on male-managed plots and among smaller farms. In addition, practices such as organic input use and soil and water conservation are more sensitive to climate perceptions than more resource-intensive practices, including irrigation, intercropping, and no-tillage. While not causal, the findings highlight the role of behavioral and perceptual factors in adoption and offer practical guidance for context-sensitive extension and outreach.
Work in Progress
Advancing climate resiliency in agriculture systems in Chhattisgarh.
Sustaining Circular Livelihoods: A Qualitative Analysis of the Wastewater Aquaculture Value Chain in the East Kolkata Wetlands.
Community-managed water governance in Odisha.
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)
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)