Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Evaluating grain banks and their impact on food security

这项研究项目的目的是收集和分析村庄和家庭调查数据，以确定谷物银行这一最近创新的粮食安全干预措施对参与的家庭的营养和健康状况的影响，以及影响其在印度奥里萨邦成功运营的制度特征和社会经济因素。到目前为止，粮食银行还没有受到任何严格的评估。目前存在的证据大多是定性的，是基于对几家“示范”谷物银行的案例研究。尽管在知识上存在这种差距，但印度政府和非政府组织都认为粮食银行非常有希望，并将其作为农村部落社区粮食安全战略的一个组成部分进行推广。在实现该项目目标的过程中，希望研究结果将有助于政策制定者和实践者对改进印度和其他地方现有和设计新的、更有效的粮食安全干预措施感兴趣。在研究设计方面，影响评估将是准试验性的，并利用调查区域内并不是所有村庄都有粮食银行的事实，而制度分析将主要利用跨村庄粮食银行的设计和实施的差异。奥里萨邦之所以被选为这项研究的对象，是因为该州的粮食安全记录特别差，而且谷物银行的发病率也很高。一项村庄和家庭调查将在奥里萨邦农村以部落为主的地区进行，那里高度集中的谷物银行是由著名的农村发展非政府组织Agragamee建立的，它建立了该州最多的谷物银行。在之前对拟议的调查地点进行的一次访问中，合作PI开始与Agragamee的管理层、现场工作人员以及该地区的居民进行接触。阿格拉伽米的管理层已批准这一项目，并同意在外地提供所需的后勤和便利支助。更广泛的影响该项目将率先对粮食银行进行系统的、定量的影响和制度分析。这将通过与一个主要非政府组织的伙伴关系，促进从业人员和研究人员之间的更大合作和直接知识交流来实现。希望研究结果将更好地为印度国内外的个人和组织提供信息，使他们受益，他们有兴趣了解粮食银行在实现其所述粮食安全目标方面的表现，它们的主要优势和劣势是什么，以及哪些环境因素和体制设计和实施特点帮助或损害了它们的运作，这些因素和机构设计和实施特点是以各种关键业绩标准衡量的。调查结果将通过在不同环境中与政策制定者和从业人员的互动以及通过学术和非学术出版物广泛传播。该项目的一个有价值的副产品将是创建一个数据集，其中包含家庭和个人层面广泛的人口和社会经济信息，例如，包括人体测量、对粮食不安全、饮食多样性、发病率、移徙、生产性资产、农业产出、信贷和储蓄的看法。这些信息将从奥里萨邦西南部的部落家庭以及印度社会中随机抽样收集，奥里萨邦是奥里亚邦最不利的地区之一。这一相对独特的数据集将向公众公布，希望它将促进对这一在很大程度上被忽视的亚群的情况和需求的进一步研究。

The aim of this research project is to gather and analyze village and household survey data in order to determine the impact of grain banks, a recent innovative food security intervention, on the nutritional and health status of participating households as well as the institutional features and socioeconomic factors which affect their successful operation in Orissa, India. Grain banks have so far not been subject to any rigorous evaluation. What presently exists by way of evidence is largely qualitative based on case studies of a few "model" grain banks. In spite of this gap in knowledge, both the government of India as well as NGOs view grain banks as highly promising and have promoted them as an integral component of their food security strategy for rural tribal communities. In meeting the goals of the project, it is hoped that the findings will be useful to policymakers and practitioners interested in improving existing and designing new, more effective food security interventions in India and elsewhere. In terms of the research design, the impact evaluation will be quasi-experimental in nature and exploits the fact that not all villages in the survey area have grain banks, while the institutional analysis will primarily exploit variation in the design and implementation of grain banks across villages. Orissa was selected for the study as the state has a particularly poor food security record and is also home to a high incidence of grain banks. A village and household survey will be conducted in a predominantly tribal area in rural Orissa, where a high concentration of grain banks were established by Agragamee, a prominent rural development NGO which has set up the largest number of grain banks in the state. A previous visit to the proposed survey site has allowed the co-PI to initiate contact with Agragamee's management, field staff as well as residents of that area. Agragamee's management has endorsed this project and has agreed to provide the required logistical and facilitation support in the field. BROADER IMPACTS This project will be the first to conduct a systematic, quantitative impact and institutional analysis of grain banks. This will be made possible by partnering with a major NGO, facilitating greater cooperation and the direct exchange of knowledge between practitioners and researchers. It is hoped that the findings of the study will better inform and benefit individuals and organizations within and outside India who are interested in learning how grain banks have fared in terms of meeting their stated food security objectives, what their major strengths and weaknesses are, and what environmental factors and institutional design and implementation features have aided or impaired their operation measured in terms of various key performance criteria. The findings will be disseminated broadly through interactions with policymakers and practitioners in various settings as well as through scholarly and non-scholarly publications. A valuable by-product of the project will be the creation of a dataset with extensive demographic and socio-economic information at the household- and individual-level including, for example, on anthropometry, perceptions on food insecurity, dietary diversity, morbidity, migration, productive assets, agricultural output, credit, and savings. This information will be collected for a random sample of tribal households in southwest Orissa, one of the most disadvantaged sections of Oriya as well as Indian society. This relatively unique dataset will be made publicly available, and it is hoped that it will promote further research into the circumstances and needs of this largely neglected sub-population.