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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.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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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

Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Samuel Scott

Research Fellow

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Bio

Samuel Scott is a Research Fellow in IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. With IFPRI since 2016, he conducts applied nutrition research in the South Asia region. He has experience working on iron deficiency and anemia, adolescent health, biofortification, human functional outcomes such as cognition, behavior change communication strategies, women’s self-help groups, school feeding programs, and health systems.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Dr. Scott completed postdoctoral research on The Interactions of Malnutrition and Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) project. His doctoral research involved randomized controlled trials in India and Rwanda to measure the efficacy of iron-biofortified pearl millet and beans, and a study examining interrelations between iron status, physical fitness, and cognitive function among female college students in the United States. He holds a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the Pennsylvania State University.

Publications

CV

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Preprint

Can rights-based conditional cash transfers improve children’s nutrition at scale? Evidence from India’s maternity benefit program

2025Ray, Soumyajit; Chakrabarti, Suman; Pal, Sumantra; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Scott, Samuel P.; Menon, Purnima
Details

Can rights-based conditional cash transfers improve children’s nutrition at scale? Evidence from India’s maternity benefit program

This study evaluates the impact of India’s Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), a large-scale conditional cash transfer (CCT) program targeting women during their first birth, on child nutrition. Using National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data from 2005 to 2021, we assess changes in growth for 296,782 children under five years old before and after PMMVY implementation. To address potential biases, we employ a quasi-experimental approach with a Triple Difference analysis, comparing first- to second-born children of CCT and non-CCT mothers. We find that potential exposure to PMMVY is associated with improvements in weight-for-age and height-for-age z-scores. These effects likely operate through increased pregnancy registration, antenatal care, and immunizations. PMMVY is cost-effective, with a short-run benefit-cost ratio of 1.35. This study underscores the importance of CCT programs targeting mothers in enhancing child nutrition in low- and middle-income countries.

Year published

2025

Authors

Ray, Soumyajit; Chakrabarti, Suman; Pal, Sumantra; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Scott, Samuel P.; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Ray, Soumyajit; Chakrabarti, Suman; Pal, Sumantra; Nguyen, Phuong; Scott, Samuel P.; and Menon, Purnima. Can rights-based conditional cash transfers improve children’s nutrition at scale? Evidence from India’s maternity benefit program. MedRxiv Preprint. Available January 13, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.12.25320443

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Cash Transfers; Nutrition; Children; Maternity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.12.25320443 Source record

Record type

Preprint

Resource thumbnail

Preprint

Perceived constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from agrifood system assessments in rural South Asia

2025Patwardhan, Sharvari; Chakrabarti, Suman; Choo, Esther M.; Boncyk, Morgan; Blake, Christine; Kim, Sunny S.; Scott, Samuel P.
Details

Perceived constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from agrifood system assessments in rural South Asia

The healthfulness of diets in South Asia is limited by socio-economic and public infrastructure challenges. Perceptions about food such as availability, accessibility, desirability, and convenience can impact food choice and ultimately diets. However, there are limited tools to understand consumers’ perceptions of these factors and if perceptions relate to actual food intake. Using a novel tool administered across five rural districts in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, we quantify the association between food perceptions and food intake. A Likert scale (agree, neutral, disagree) was used to capture respondents’ perceptions about seven food choice drivers (affordability, accessibility, desirability, convenience, food quality, food safety, availability) for a list of six common foods. For each food, principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify latent “drivers”. The association between these and diets (using 24-hour dietary recall data) was estimated using multivariable regression analysis. There was considerable heterogeneity across countries with respect to the relative importance of food choice drivers and diet quality. There is a need to measure and understand individual food perceptions that drive food choice to help develop policies that promote healthier food choices.

Year published

2025

Authors

Patwardhan, Sharvari; Chakrabarti, Suman; Choo, Esther M.; Boncyk, Morgan; Blake, Christine; Kim, Sunny S.; Scott, Samuel P.

Citation

Patwardhan, Sharvari; Chakrabarti, Suman; Choo, Esther M.; Boncyk, Morgan; Blake, Christine; et al. 2025. Perceived constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from agrifood system assessments in rural South Asia. MedRxiv available January 9, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.06.25320037

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Capacity Building; Rural Areas; Healthy Diets; Agrifood Systems; Surveys

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.06.25320037 Source record

Project

Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia

Record type

Preprint

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Rural diets under pressure: Food environments and their influence on food choice in South Asia

2025Chauhan, Alka; Scott, Samuel P.; Joe, William; Maharjan, Nanda Kumar; Menon, Purnima; Chakrabarti, Suman
Details

Rural diets under pressure: Food environments and their influence on food choice in South Asia

The rapid South Asia rural transformation, driven by globalization and industrialization, has introduced a complex interaction between traditional and modern food systems. This study characterizes rural food environments in five districts across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, focusing on how affordability, availability, accessibility, desirability, and convenience shape dietary choices and quality. Through extensive household and market surveys, we find rural diets characterized by low intake of healthy foods and moderate to high consumption of unhealthy options, influenced by a lack of affordability and the desirability and widespread availability of cheap ultra-processed products in rural markets. Snacking plays a significant role in shaping dietary patterns, promoting both dietary diversity and unhealthy food consumption. These findings provide essential insights for designing interventions tailored to rural food systems, supporting efforts to improve nutrition and health outcomes in rapidly changing markets.

Year published

2025

Authors

Chauhan, Alka; Scott, Samuel P.; Joe, William; Maharjan, Nanda Kumar; Menon, Purnima; Chakrabarti, Suman

Citation

Chauhan, Alka; Scott, Samuel P.; Joe, William; Maharjan, Nanda Kumar; Menon, Purnima; and Chakrabarti, Suman. 2025. Rural diets under pressure: Food environments and their influence on food choice in South Asia. SSRN Working Paper. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5082127

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Capacity Building; Rural Areas; Diet; Food Environment; Feeding Preferences

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5082127 Source record

Project

Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia 2024 Conference: Connecting the dots across systems
IFPRI Blog
 | 
February 04, 2025

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia 2024 Conference: Connecting the dots across systems

By Julie Ghostlaw, Esha Sarswat, Shreya Chakraborty, Neha Kumar, Swetha Manohar, and Samuel Scott

Exploring the interconnectedness of food systems.

Global Food Policy Report 2024: Leveraging plant-source foods for sustainable healthy diets
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 04, 2024

Global Food Policy Report 2024: Leveraging plant-source foods for sustainable healthy diets

By Erick Boy, Inge Brouwer, Jen Foley, Natalia Palacios, Samuel Scott, and Victor Taleon

Integrating more fruits, vegetables, and other high-quality crops into food systems.

School feeding programs improve nutrition and child growth across generations: Evidence from India
IFPRI Blog
 | 
August 12, 2021

School feeding programs improve nutrition and child growth across generations: Evidence from India

By Suman Chakrabarti, Samuel Scott, Harold Alderman, Purnima Menon, and Daniel Gilligan

Research shows for the first time the benefits of a key type of social protection program extend years later to the children of recipients.

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Events

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the Dots Across Systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 3 to 5, 2024

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the Dots Across Systems

South Asia grapples with escalating levels of malnutrition in various forms, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies, alongside increasing incidence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. Malnutrition results from a complex interplay of factors incorporating household and individual decision-making, agriculture and food systems, healthcare services, education, and socio-ecological systems that determine access to services and […]

South Asia Launch | Nepal | 2024 Global Food Policy Report: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition
Series/Special Event

 | 

August 8 to 9, 2024

South Asia Launch | Nepal | 2024 Global Food Policy Report: Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition

Despite significant progress in addressing hunger and undernutrition in the early 2000s, malnutrition, in all its forms, remains a major challenge in all regions of the world. Unhealthy diets remain the primary drivers of many forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, micronutrient deficiencies, and diet- related noncommunicable diseases. Today, the number of people […]

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 2 to 7, 2024

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists

The triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE-2024), centred on the theme “Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems” is scheduled from August 2-7, 2024, in New Delhi, India. The conference offers a distinctive platform, providing a golden opportunity for the agricultural academic institutions and researchers to convene in person, exchange knowledge, and actively contribute to the […]

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News

January 24, 2021 | In the News

Legal age for marriage (Aishwarya Sandeep Blog)

Aishwarya Sandeep Blog published a post on how the government is stepping in to decide on the legal marriage age for men and women. Currently, women can marry at 18, whereas men aren’t allowed to marry until 21. The age of maturity is the same–eighteen years of age. To avoid sex discrimination, the same should be true for marriage. […]

August 17, 2020 | In the News

India Has 1.5 Million Underage Brides Every Year. Here’s How ’21’ Can Change That (Better India)

Better India published an article on the government’s campaign to prevent underage marriage for girls. A task force to examine issues related to age of motherhood, lowering Maternal Mortality Rate and improvement of nutritional levels was created. An IFPRI study, “Social, biological and programmatic factors link adolescent pregnancy to early childhood undernutrition: a path analysis of India’s 2016 National […]

April 03, 2020 | In the News

India’s lockdown carries a silver lining: bluer skies (Asian Review)

Asian Review (Japan) published an article on air pollution in India, particularly New Delhi. The 21-day lockdown, ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain the spread of COVID-19 has improved air quality with factories idle, no cars on roads, and most public transportation suspended.  The article quoted from the study, Risk of acute respiratory infection from crop burning […]

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