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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Emily Schmidt

Emily Schmidt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her most recent research explores household livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea, including linkages between agriculture, poverty, and nutrition outcomes among rural smallholder farmers.

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Development Strategies and Governance

Abul Kamar

Senior Research Analyst

Bio

Abul Kamar is a Senior Research Analyst in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in the South Asia Office in New Delhi. Presently, he works on the Regional Trade and Agricultural Transformation in the Bay of Bengal Countries project and the Agricultural Transformation and Market Integration in the ASEAN Region project. His research interests include trade in agriculture, regional trade agreements, climate change, and poverty.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Abul worked with the Government of India’s Ministries of Commerce and Industry and of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, where he provided analytical inputs for India’s position on various cross-cutting issues of international trade including regional trade agreements. He holds a master’s degree in General Economics from Madras School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Economics from Aligarh Muslim University.

Development Strategies and Governance

Publications

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Report

Synthesis report: Agricultural transformation and market integration in the ASEAN region: Responding to food security and inclusiveness concerns

2025Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil
Details

Synthesis report: Agricultural transformation and market integration in the ASEAN region: Responding to food security and inclusiveness concerns

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional grouping of Southeast Asian countries formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined this association in 1984. ASEAN expanded to 10 countries between 1995 and 1999 by extending memberships to Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. These 10 Southeast Asian countries entered into the trade agreement to ensure the free flow of goods, including agricultural products. Agreements related to services and investment were also signed to enhance economic cooperation and to develop an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 2003 helped liberalize the intra-ASEAN agricultural trade, which grew steadily during the period under review. Further, the dynamics of intra ASEAN trade show that after the food price crisis of 2007/2008, intra-ASEAN agricultural trade increased sharply, which reflects ASEAN’s efforts to create a food security action plan aimed at improving sustainable food trade among ASEAN members.

Year published

2025

Authors

Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil

Citation

Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata; and Saroj, Sunil. 2025. Synthesis report: Agricultural transformation and market integration in the ASEAN region: Responding to food security and inclusiveness concerns. New Delhi, India: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/170266

Country/Region

Philippines; Singapore

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agriculture; Food Security; Trade; Economic Aspects; Prices

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Report

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Conference Paper

Foreign direct investment, globalized agri-food value chains and transformation

2024Saroj, Sunil; Veeramani, Choorikkad; Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata
Details

Foreign direct investment, globalized agri-food value chains and transformation

We examine the determinants of participation and positioning in the Agriculture Globalized Value Chains (AGVC) with focus on role of foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in agriculture. Among the determinants, trade policies that are reflected in cost to trade play a significant role in AGVC engagement. FDI in agriculture affects AGVC structure correlating significantly with forward participation. FDI holds potential for enhancing value addition, technology diffusion, and market access. We then assess the effect of AGVC on production diversification in agriculture i.e., manifested in crop choices. A priori is unclear whether AGVC participation and positioning leads to greater specialization or diversification as there are forces in either direction. Our findings show that AGVC participation is associated with diversified agriculture. Moreover, the effect varies by positioning (backward and forward). The estimates using panel regression, Lewbel instrumental variable method and continuous treatment matching yielding dose response functions show these results to be robust. Results also vary regionally. East and Southeast Asia show the strongest association between AGVC and product diversification.

Year published

2024

Authors

Saroj, Sunil; Veeramani, Choorikkad; Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata

Citation

Saroj, Sunil; Veeramani, Choorikkad; Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; and Pradhan, Mamata. 2024. Foreign direct investment, globalized agri-food value chains and transformation. Presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Economists in New Delhi, India on August 6, 2024. https://iaae.confex.com/iaae/icae32/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/20855

Keywords

Foreign Investment; Value Chains; Agrifood Systems; Diversification; Uncertainty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Conference Paper

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Brief

India’s rice export restrictions and BIMSTEC countries: Implications and recommendations

2023Kamar, Abul; Roy, Devesh; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil
Details

India’s rice export restrictions and BIMSTEC countries: Implications and recommendations

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) brings together five South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and two Southeast Asian countries (Myanmar and Thailand). Recent events have raised global concerns on food security, including for BIMSTEC countries; these events include Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Ukraine, India’s prohibition on the export of non-basmati white rice, and its 20 percent export duty on parboiled rice. This policy note spells out the likely impact of one of these events, that is, India’s restrictions on rice exports to its fellow BIMSTEC nations. Trade moves food from surplus to deficit regions and hence is crucial for maintaining a stable food supply. Historically, the global supply of cereals has been stable (Bradford et al. 2022); this implies that trade (or the lack of it) can be directly mapped onto area-specific food insecurity. At the same time, shocks leading to trade disruption can pose serious challenges, particularly for countries with high import penetration in food.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kamar, Abul; Roy, Devesh; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil

Citation

Kamar, Abul; Roy, Devesh; Pradhan, Mamata; and Saroj, Sunil. 2023. India’s rice export restrictions and BIMSTEC countries: Implications and recommendations. Policy Note September 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136875.

Country/Region

India; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Nepal; Sri Lanka

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Imports; Exports; Cereals; Rice; Trade Barriers; Trade; Food Security; Shocks

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136875 Source record

Record type

Brief

Blogs

Informal trade: Insights from Phansidewa at the India-Bangladesh border
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 22, 2023

Informal trade: Insights from Phansidewa at the India-Bangladesh border

By Nisha Taneja, Sanjana Joshi, Sanya Dua, Abul Kamar, Sunil Saroj, Devesh Roy, and Mamata Pradhan

Documenting a shifting landscape of commerce.

India’s edible oil imports from Nepal: Policy implications of current tariffs and free trade agreements
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 12, 2023

India’s edible oil imports from Nepal: Policy implications of current tariffs and free trade agreements

By Abul Kamar, Devesh Roy, and Shahidur Rashid

Explaining a case of tariff arbitrage.

Capacity strengthening program: Building stronger agrifood trade links in the BIMSTEC region
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 23, 2023

Capacity strengthening program: Building stronger agrifood trade links in the BIMSTEC region

By Abul Kamar

Key takeaways from the recent event organized by IFPRI South Asia and Research and Information System for Developing Countries.

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