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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

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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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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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

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

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

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

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

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

In this paper, we address the question of the agricultural market integration of Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Philippines (CLMVP) countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and its other top trading partners. Using “Trade Potential” and “Competition Indices” indicators in this paper we assess the nature and extent of the agricultural market integration. We identify the exports of CLMVP countries with high export potential and comparatively low competition in export markets. Higher trade potential with lower competition (value or volume) indicates an opportunity of higher returns for agricultural producers. CLMVP countries are characterized by low diversity in agricultural exports. Nearly half of the total agricultural exports from all of them except Laos is contributed by only one commodity. It is found that market integration is an effective way of linking CLMVP smallholders to ASEAN agricultural markets. In addition to that this paper also discusses on tariff and non-tariff policy of CLMVP countries and found that the average tariffs on agri-food imports in CLMVP is 11.8% while it is 9.5% in non-CLMVP among the ASEAN countries. In non-tariff policy, among the CLMVP countries, Philippines shares the maximum number of SPS measures implemented on agricultural goods while Cambodia and Lao PDR did not report any SPS measures implemented by them between 2006 to 2020. Finally, to demonstrate the upward movement in the value chain, possibly due to quality upgradation, we present the dynamics of the unit values of CLMVP’s agricultural exports.

Year published

2023

Authors

Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil; Ajmani, Manmeet Singh

Citation

Roy, Devesh; Kamar, Abul; Pradhan, Mamata; Saroj, Sunil; and Ajmani, Manmeet. 2023. Agricultural transformation and market integration in the ASEAN region: Responding to food security and inclusiveness concerns. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2188. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136718

Country/Region

Cambodia; Myanmar; Philippines

Keywords

Laos; South-eastern Asia; Asia; Value Chains; Trade Associations; Imports; Exports; Policies; Commodities; Agriculture; Markets; Trade; Returns; Commodity Markets; Tariffs

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136718 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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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