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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

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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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

Natural Resources and Resilience

Vartika Singh

Senior Research Analyst

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Bio

Vartika Singh is a Senior Research Analyst in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, based in New Delhi, and a Senior Research Officer at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Humboldt University in Berlin and a guest researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany. Her research interest is in the nexus of food-water-energy and land. She works with partial equilibrium (PE) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models to study the integrated impact of water, energy, and climate policies toward developing sustainable transformation pathways for India in a global context. These activities constitute the core of her dissertation and are part of the CGIAR Nexus Gains Initiative. She has also worked on applied behavioral microeconomic experiments aimed at addressing barriers to sustainable intensification of agriculture as part of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project.

Vartika holds a master’s degree in development studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, India, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hindu College, Delhi University, India.

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Publications

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Brief

Biofuels in India: Trading off climate mitigation with water security goals

2025Singh, Vartika; Mishra, Abhijeet; Alam, Mohammad Faiz; Sulser, Timothy B.; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Biofuels in India: Trading off climate mitigation with water security goals

Biofuels are recognized as a renewable alternative to fossil sources of energy like petroleum or gas. Liquid biofuels, such as bioethanol and biodiesel are blended with petrol or diesel and used for road, aviation and marine transport; they are expected to account for 6% of total renewable transportation fuel use by 2030. Biofuels can not only support a country’s mitigation goals; but also reduce the need for foreign exchange and support agricultural growth. In India, 22% of total energy supply is provided by renewables, most of it from biomass for heating; while biofuels account for less than 1% of transportation energy. Over 90% of bioethanol and biodiesel are produced from food crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybeans, and vegetable oils, with sugarcane serving as the primary feedstock. As a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India submitted its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) to the UNFCCC in 2022, emphasizing the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport sector. Achieving this goal is supported, among others, by India’s biofuel policy of 2018 (modified from the original policy of 2009), which aims to achieve blending targets of 20% for ethanol and 5% for biodiesel by 2025.

Year published

2025

Authors

Singh, Vartika; Mishra, Abhijeet; Alam, Mohammad Faiz; Sulser, Timothy B.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Singh, Vartika; Mishra, Abhijeet; Alam, Mohammad Faiz; Sulser, Timothy B.; and Ringler, Claudia. 2025. Biofuels in India: Trading off climate mitigation with water security goals. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178762

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Biofuels; Climate Change Mitigation; Climate Change; Water Security; Natural Resources

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Opinion Piece

What Indians eat, and how being unhealthy is easier and cheaper

2025Swaminathan, Soumya; Singh, Vartika; Subramaniam, Sowmiyaa
Details

What Indians eat, and how being unhealthy is easier and cheaper

Food companies must invest in affordable, culturally appropriate, healthy products matching Indian tastes and lifestyles. It requires a whole-of-society engagement.

Year published

2025

Authors

Swaminathan, Soumya; Singh, Vartika; Subramaniam, Sowmiyaa

Citation

Swaminathan, Soumya; Singh, Vartika; and Subramaniam, Sowmiyaa. 2025. What Indians eat, and how being unhealthy is easier and cheaper. Indian Express, first published on December 10, 2025. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-indians-eat-and-how-being-unhealthy-is-easier-and-cheaper-10411907/

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Diet; Feeding Preferences; Health; Food Affordability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Opinion Piece

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Journal Article

A food system transformation pathway reconciles 1.5 °C global warming with improved health, environment and social inclusion

2025
Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Beier, Felicitas; Humpenöder, Florian; Leip, Debbora; Crawford, Michael S.; Chen, David Meng-Chuen; von Jeetze, Patrick; Springmann, Marco; Soergel, Bjoern; Nicholls, Zebedee
…more Strefler, Jessica; Lewis, Jared; Heinke, Jens; Müller, Christoph; Karstens, Kristine; Weindl, Isabelle; Stevanović, Miodrag; Rein, Patrick; Sauer, Pascal; Mishra, Abhijeet; Bacca, Edna Johanna Molina; Köberle, Alexandre C.; Wang, Xiaoxi; Singh, Vartika; Hunecke, Claudia; Collignon, Quitterie; Schreinemachers, Pepijn; Dietz, Simon; Kanbur, Ravi; Dietrich, Jan Philipp; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Popp, Alexander
Details

A food system transformation pathway reconciles 1.5 °C global warming with improved health, environment and social inclusion

The improvement of the global food system requires a thorough understanding of how specific measures may contribute to the system’s transformation. Here we apply a global food and land system modelling framework to quantify the impact of 23 food system measures on 15 outcome indicators related to public health, the environment, social inclusion and the economy, up to 2050. While all individual measures come with trade-offs, their combination can reduce trade-offs and enhance co-benefits. We estimate that combining all food system measures may reduce yearly mortality by 182 million life years and almost halves nitrogen surplus while offsetting negative effects of environmental protection measures on absolute poverty. Through joint efforts, including measures outside the food system, the 1.5 °C climate target can be achieved.

Year published

2025

Authors

Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Beier, Felicitas; Humpenöder, Florian; Leip, Debbora; Crawford, Michael S.; Chen, David Meng-Chuen; von Jeetze, Patrick; Springmann, Marco; Soergel, Bjoern; Nicholls, Zebedee; Strefler, Jessica; Lewis, Jared; Heinke, Jens; Müller, Christoph; Karstens, Kristine; Weindl, Isabelle; Stevanović, Miodrag; Rein, Patrick; Sauer, Pascal; Mishra, Abhijeet; Bacca, Edna Johanna Molina; Köberle, Alexandre C.; Wang, Xiaoxi; Singh, Vartika; Hunecke, Claudia; Collignon, Quitterie; Schreinemachers, Pepijn; Dietz, Simon; Kanbur, Ravi; Dietrich, Jan Philipp; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Popp, Alexander

Citation

Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Beier, Felicitas; Humpenöder, Florian; Leip, Debbora; Crawford, Michael S.; et al. 2025. A food system transformation pathway reconciles 1.5 °C global warming with improved health, environment and social inclusion. Nature Food 6(12): 1133-1152. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01268-y

Keywords

Capacity Building; Food Systems; Health; Environment; Social Inclusion; Climate Change; Global Warming

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01268-y Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Reimagining Indian agriculture for a low-carbon future
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 23, 2025

Reimagining Indian agriculture for a low-carbon future

By Vartika Singh and Arabinda Padhee

Guiding an ongoing transformation.

Groundwater conservation and food security: Navigating pathways to sustainable agriculture
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 15, 2024

Groundwater conservation and food security: Navigating pathways to sustainable agriculture

By Vartika Singh and Claudia Ringler

Tradeoffs must be carefully managed.

Experts identify policy gaps in fertilizer application in India
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 03, 2019

Experts identify policy gaps in fertilizer application in India

By Vartika Singh and Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam

Innovation in the fertilizer industry and in reaching farmers with best practices and knowledge are key to improving fertilizer application and crop health in India.

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Events

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 2 to 4, 2025

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale

South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge. This […]

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 […]

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

 | 

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.

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News

June 14, 2024 | Press Release

New study emphasizes tradeoffs between arresting groundwater depletion and food security

A new study published today in Nature Sustainability, reaffirms the world’s growing dependence on depleting groundwater systems.

March 19, 2023 | In the News

MC explains | Maharashtra’s onion crisis: The reasons and the repercussions (Money Control) 

“Maharashtra’s onion farmers, the star producers of India’s perennial kitchen staple, are staring at huge losses. This is likely to have a serious impact on onion harvest going ahead,” writes Money Control in a story on onion prices. Farmers are demanding the lifting of the ban on onion exports. There have also been reports of […]