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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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Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, based in IFPRI’s West and Central Africa office in Senegal. She has over 15 years of research experience in diet, nutrition, and food security in Africa, including countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania.

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experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Sharanya Rajiv

Research Analyst

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Sharanya

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ORCiD

Bio

Sharanya Rajiv is a research analyst in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her research focuses on governance, climate resilience, food security, and development issues in Central Asia. Prior to IFPRI, she managed grants and special projects at Atalan Tech, a startup that provides predictive analytics to mitigate burnout and turnover among providers and other healthcare workers. Previously she was a social development consultant at the World Bank office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and worked at the New Delhi center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Sharanya holds a Master in Public Policy in Global Affairs from Yale University and a Bachelors with honors in Political Science from the University of Delhi. She also speaks Hindi, Tamil, and Russian.

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Publications

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Book Chapter

Regional developments: Central Asia [in 2025 GFPR]

2025Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Babu, Suresh Chandra; Rajiv, Sharanya
Details

Regional developments: Central Asia [in 2025 GFPR]

Since the countries of Central Asia gained independence in 1991, the region’s food systems have undergone significant transformations shaped by political and economic reforms, institutional shifts, globalization, climate change, and labor migration. This chapter examines how food policy research developed evidence to inform market-oriented reforms and agricultural transformation, ultimately leading to substantial reductions in poverty, food insecurity, and undernutrition, and also assesses the interconnected challenges of climate change, land use, markets and incentives, demographic shifts, socioeconomic trends, and geopolitical factors that face the region in the lead-up to 2050. Book link: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Year published

2025

Authors

Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Babu, Suresh Chandra; Rajiv, Sharanya

Citation

Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Babu, Suresh Chandra; and Rajiv, Sharanya. 2025. Regional developments: Central Asia. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett. Part Six: Regional Developments and Priorities, Chapter 20, Pp. 487-506. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174356

Country/Region

Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Economic Growth; Food Policies; Food Systems; Capacity Development; Climate Change; Food Security; Poverty; Water Resources; Nutrition; Migration

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Brief

Unlocking Innovation in homestead farms: Exploring drivers and barriers to innovation adoption among farming households in Uzbekistan

2024Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Dhehibi, Boubaker
Details

Unlocking Innovation in homestead farms: Exploring drivers and barriers to innovation adoption among farming households in Uzbekistan

Homestead, or tomorqa, farms play a key role in agriculture and food security in Uzbekistan. These small-scale farms are integral to the livelihoods of more than 5.5 million rural households, collectively utilizing over 500,000 hectares of agricultural land, which accounts for nearly 15 percent of the country’s total arable agricultural land area.1 The significance of homestead farms is also underscored by their substantial contribution to the overall agricultural output of the country, producing the majority of horticulture and livestock products. In 2023, homestead farms produced approximately 62 percent of agricultural products, 37 percent of crop output, and an impressive 88 percent of livestock production. Recognizing their critical importance, the Uzbek government has positioned homestead farms at the heart of its poverty reduction strategy. This strategy includes the allocation of additional land to rural households, thereby expanding their capacity for agricultural production and improving the economic stability of rural communities. Furthermore, the government actively promotes the adoption of innovative agricultural technologies and practices by homestead farms.

Year published

2024

Authors

Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Dhehibi, Boubaker

Citation

Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon; and Dhehibi, Boubaker. 2024. Unlocking Innovation in homestead farms: Exploring drivers and barriers to innovation adoption among farming households in Uzbekistan. IFPRI Project Note December 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168427

Country/Region

Uzbekistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Innovation Adoption; Farms; Agriculture; Food Security; Poverty Reduction; Capacity Development; Climate-smart Agriculture

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Impact of COVID-19 on food security and cropping patterns in Tajikistan: Evidence from a telephone survey in Khatlon Province

2024Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Aliev, Jovidon
Details

Impact of COVID-19 on food security and cropping patterns in Tajikistan: Evidence from a telephone survey in Khatlon Province

Poor households are the most vulnerable to external shocks. When Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation restricted wheat exports in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, prices for wheat flour and derived products (staple food) increased sharply in Central Asian countries that are dependent on wheat import (the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). These export restrictions also increased fears of adverse food security outcomes in importing countries. In Tajikistan, these global dynamics translated into significant challenges given its reliance on imports to meet around half of its cereal requirements. The FAO forecasted Tajikistan’s cereal import requirement for 2020/21 at 1,225,000 tons or about 50 percent of its total consumption. Most of this import requirement was made up of wheat, which is a key staple in the Tajik diet, comprising about 54% of total wheat consumption. The country’s key wheat supplier, Kazakhstan, imposed export limitations in April and May 2020. Consequently, despite a good domestic harvest and price stabilization initiatives by the Government of Tajikistan, the domestic price of wheat remained well above the 2019 levels. To unpack the impact of COVID-19 on rural livelihoods and farm decision making, panel data from 1,200 households in Khatlon province in Tajikistan was analyzed. Data was collected through a phone survey in September-October 2020 in 12 districts of Khatlon province, with a set of households previously surveyed in September 2018. The analysis examines respondents’ perceptions of the pandemic’s effects on their households’ livelihoods and agricultural production, disaggregate by 2018 household wealth quartiles. The analysis is descriptive and summarizes respondents’ perceptions. The methodology doesn’t allow us to determine causal pathways or generalize the results beyond Khatlon province.

Year published

2024

Authors

Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Aliev, Jovidon

Citation

Rajiv, Sharanya; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; and Aliev, Jovidon. 2024. Impact of COVID-19 on food security and cropping patterns in Tajikistan. Project Note September 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155378

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Covid-19; Cropping Patterns; Food Security; Households; Shock

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Brief