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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.

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researcher spotlight

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin is the Acting Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review.

Where we work

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Subhransu Pattnaik

Senior Research Analyst

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Bio

Subhransu Pattnaik is a Research Analyst in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. He has experience working in the social sector with a quantitative background, and he is an advanced user of statistical packages like STATA and R. He also has experience working with the Global Development Institute on the Global Findex Database for one of their DFID projects and is well-versed in handling cross-sectional and longitudinal data for financial inclusion, gender, agriculture, and education. Subhransu has experience in designing both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies as well as creating evaluation frameworks, particularly to assess the applicability of gender, education, and social inclusion from a programmatic aspect.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Subhransu worked with Thinkthrough Consulting on assignments for key corporations and their CSR departments, including DCM Shriram, LTPCT, and LTFS, among others. He is adept with primary and secondary level research, and research tools design and has extensive field experience across India. Subhransu has worked with Centre for Public Policy at IIM, Bangalore, on political economy and education with the state governments. He holds a master’s degree in Development Finance from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Publications

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Conference Paper

Impacts of a digital credit-insurance bundle for landless farmers: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial in Odisha, India

2023Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; Ward, Patrick S.; Xu, Yingchen
Details

Impacts of a digital credit-insurance bundle for landless farmers: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial in Odisha, India

Smallholder farmers often lack documented land rights to serve as collateral for formal loans, and their livelihoods are inextricably linked to increasingly variable weather conditions. Resulting credit and risk constraints prevent them from making potentially profitable investments in their farms. We implemented a randomized evaluation of the impacts of KhetScore, an innovative credit scoring methodology that uses digital technologies and in particular remote sensing to unlock credit and insurance for smallholders including landless farmers in Odisha, a state in eastern India. In our treatment group, where we offered loans and insurance based on the KhetScore methodology, farmers – and especially women – were more likely to purchase insurance, renew insurance coverage in subsequent years, and borrow from formal sources without substituting formal loans for informal loans. Despite increased borrowing, households in the treatment group faced less difficulty in repaying loans, suggesting that KhetScore loans, bundled with crop insurance, transferred risk and eased the burden of repayment. Moreover, the treatment increased agricultural revenues during the monsoon (kharif) season and reduced costs in the dry (rabi) season, enhancing profitability in both seasons. Positive and significant effects are found not only among baseline credit unconstrained farmers but also quantity rationed farmers, suggesting that KhetScore loans can help overcome supply-side credit constraints. Finally, women in the treatment group reported significantly higher levels of empowerment and mental health, manifested in increased participation in household decision-making and reduced feelings of stress, than women in the control group. In conclusion, digital technologies can contribute substantially to expansion in agricultural credit access, risk management, resilience, and well-being among marginalized landless farmers.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; Ward, Patrick S.; Xu, Yingchen

Citation

Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; Ward, Patrick S.; and Xu, Yingchen. 2023. Impacts of a digital credit-insurance bundle for landless farmers: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial in Odisha, India. Presented at the 2024 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2024, San Antonio, Texas.

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Credit; Impact Assessment; Insurance; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.339080 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Conference Paper

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Brief

A gender-responsive approach to designing agricultural risk management bundles

2023Adhikari, Roshan; Kramer, Berber; Ward, Patrick S.; Foster, Timothy; Sharma, Varun; Gaur, Pushkar; Pattnaik, Subhransu
Details

A gender-responsive approach to designing agricultural risk management bundles

– Bundling agricultural insurance with risk-reducing agricultural technologies can lower the cost of insurance for farmers, but before implementing bundled solutions, it is important to analyze how these bundles would impact men and women differently. –

Year published

2023

Authors

Adhikari, Roshan; Kramer, Berber; Ward, Patrick S.; Foster, Timothy; Sharma, Varun; Gaur, Pushkar; Pattnaik, Subhransu

Citation

Adhikari, Roshan; Kramer, Berber; Ward, Patrick S.; Foster, Timothy; Sharma, Varun; Gaur, Pushkar; and Pattnaik, Subhransu. 2023. A gender-responsive approach to designing agricultural risk management bundles. IFPRI Project Note May 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136692

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Transplanting; Gender; Agricultural Technology; Policies; Direct Sowing; Farmers; Rice; Agricultural Insurance; Labour; Yields; Risk; Gender Equity; Women Farmers; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136692 Source record

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Gender, demand for agricultural credit and digital technology: Survey evidence from Odisha

2021Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; Ward, Patrick S.
Details

Gender, demand for agricultural credit and digital technology: Survey evidence from Odisha

This paper analyzes the potential linkages between innovations in agricultural credit and women’s empowerment. We provide survey evidence of lower baseline demand for agricultural credit among women than men. When asked to imagine that their financial institution would use data on past cultivation through observations of smartphone and satellite imagery to review loan applications and insure loans, women reported significantly more often than men that this would increase (and not decrease) the likelihood that they would apply for loans, and their desired loan amounts increased significantly more than those of men. Moreover, we find that the gender gap in demand for agricultural credit is explained, in part, by differences in empowerment between women and men, suggesting that increasing women’s empowerment could help bridge gender gaps in credit access and utilization. Using a cluster randomized trial, we assess whether gender sensitization has an effect on women’s empowerment and demand for credit, but we do not find that gender trainings help shift women’s empowerment or demand for credit. We conclude that improving access to digital credit is not going to be sufficient to empower women. Instead, gender responsive or gender transformative programming is required to improve demand and create an enabling environment in which norms are changed and make it easier for women to take out agricultural credit.

Year published

2021

Authors

Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; Ward, Patrick S.

Citation

Kramer, Berber; Pattnaik, Subhransu; and Ward, Patrick S. 2021. Gender, demand for agricultural credit and digital technology: Survey evidence from Odisha. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2093. Washington, DC: International Food Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134958

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Microfinance; Gender; Women’s Empowerment; Surveys; Demand; Agricultural Credit; Credit; Digital Technology

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134958 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Events

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 9 to 12, 2023

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems

Conference: October 09, 2023 – 9:00 AM to October 12, 2023 – 6:00 PM IST. IFPRI is participating in the 2023 annual CGIAR gender research conference will take place in New Delhi, India.