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With research staff from more than 70 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

Lilia Bliznashka

Lily Bliznashka is a Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. Her research focuses on assessing the effectiveness of multi-input nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions and the mechanisms through which they work to improve maternal and child health and nutrition globally. She has worked in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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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 480 employees working in over 70 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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TOPIC

Food Security

Food security means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

Over the coming decades, a changing climate, growing global population, volatile food prices, and environmental stressors will put significant pressure on food security. Adaptation strategies and policy responses to global change—including options for handling water allocation, land use patterns, food trade, postharvest food handling and processing, and food affordability and safety—are urgently needed.

Achieving food security for all is a central goal of IFPRI’s policy research, which prioritizes meeting critical nutritional needs (including dietary diversity and micronutrients) for human well-being and development.

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At the global level, our work looks at how trade and investment can increase food security sustainably. At the national level, our researchers use foresight and policy modeling tools to inform decision-makers and stakeholders on policies and investments that can contribute to food security by reducing poverty and boosting productivity sustainably. Researchers also conduct analysis of innovations to make food value chains more efficient (including by reducing food loss and waste) and programs intended to support food security, including social protection programs, to determine what works in particular national contexts. IFPRI also looks for ways to improve monitoring and analysis of food crisis risks, link humanitarian and developmental responses when addressing food crises, promote adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies and building resilience to shocks, which can promote food security, and at managing trade-offs, such as balancing the nutritional benefits of meat against the ecological costs of its production. Analysis of crisis response and impacts of migration also focuses on how policy responses can reduce food insecurity and contribute to sustainable development in fragile situations.IFPRI’s research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, and SDG 3, and the CGIAR Impact Areas Nutrition, Health, and Food Security; Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs; and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.

food_security

topics

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates

2026Narayanan, Sudha; Saha, Shree
Details

Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates

There is a view that the fis­cal bur­den of food sub­si­dies in India is un­sus­tain­able. Yet pop­u­lar de­bate and dis­cus­sion around the costs of these food sub­si­dies, rel­a­tive to their ben­e­fits, are mis­lead­ing for two rea­sons. First, they typ­i­cally treat re­ported bud­getary sub­sidy es­ti­mates—i.e. the fis­cal cost to the gov­ern­ment of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of food via ra­tion shops—as equiv­a­lent to “trans­fers” to ben­e­fi­cia­ries. Sec­ondly, they tend to focus ex­clu­sively on con­sumers. In doing so, they ne­glect the two-part na­ture of the food dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem, which in­cludes pay­ments to farm­ers at the time of pro­cure­ment. This paper ex­am­ines ways of mea­sur­ing the costs and value of the food sub­sidy. We pre­sent es­ti­mates that com­bine the im­plicit value of ben­e­fits to con­sumers aris­ing from the re­duced price of grain sold to con­sumers via ra­tion shops, with im­plicit ben­e­fits to farm­ers, in terms of the price dif­fer­ence be­tween what farm­ers are paid by the gov­ern­ment and what they would have ob­tained in the open mar­ket. This ap­proach shows that each rupee of the “food sub­sidy” re­ported in gov­ern­ment ac­counts rep­re­sents a trans­fer worth Rs 1.29 to con­sumers and farm­ers, on av­er­age, over the pe­riod 2001–02 to 2022–23. That is, each rupee trans­ferred to these groups is as­so­ci­ated with a cost of Rs 0.79 to the gov­ern­ment.

Year published

2026

Authors

Narayanan, Sudha; Saha, Shree

Citation

Narayanan, Sudha; and Saha, Shree. 2026. Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates. Review of Agrarian Studies 16(1). 14 p. http://ras.org.in/food_subsidies_in_india

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Subsidies; Food Aid; Social Protection; Fiscal Policies; Cost Benefit Analysis; Cash Transfers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Scaling biofortified wheat production for agrifood and nutritional security in eastern India: Evidence from five years of multi-location field evaluations in Bihar

2026
Giri, Ravinder Kumar; Cherian, Binu; Mendali, Birendra; Virk, Parminder; Pfeifer, Wolfgang; Jat, Raj Kumar; Meena, Moti Lal; Durgude, Shubham; Banerjee, Koushik; Hasanain, Mohammad
…more Meena, Vijay Singh
Details

Scaling biofortified wheat production for agrifood and nutritional security in eastern India: Evidence from five years of multi-location field evaluations in Bihar

Year published

2026

Authors

Giri, Ravinder Kumar; Cherian, Binu; Mendali, Birendra; Virk, Parminder; Pfeifer, Wolfgang; Jat, Raj Kumar; Meena, Moti Lal; Durgude, Shubham; Banerjee, Koushik; Hasanain, Mohammad; Meena, Vijay Singh

Citation

Giri, Ravinder Kumar; Cherian, Binu; Mendali, Birendra; Virk, Parminder; Pfeifer, Wolfgang; et al. 2026. Scaling biofortified wheat production for agrifood and nutritional security in eastern India: Evidence from five years of multi-location field evaluations in Bihar. Field Crops Research 341(May 1 2026): 110393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2026.110393

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Wheat; Biofortification; Nutrition Security; Food Security

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2026.110393 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Relevance of more stringent discharge standards for acute malnutrition treatment: A pooled analysis of post-treatment relapse in 21 studies

2026Guesdon, Benjamin; Rattigan, Susan M.; Grellety, Emmanuel; Bliznashka, Lilia; Donnen, Philippe; Bilukha, Oleg
Details

Relevance of more stringent discharge standards for acute malnutrition treatment: A pooled analysis of post-treatment relapse in 21 studies

Year published

2026

Authors

Guesdon, Benjamin; Rattigan, Susan M.; Grellety, Emmanuel; Bliznashka, Lilia; Donnen, Philippe; Bilukha, Oleg

Citation

Guesdon, Benjamin; Rattigan, Susan M.; Grellety, Emmanuel; Bliznashka, Lilia; Donnen, Philippe; and Bilukha, Oleg. 2026. Relevance of more stringent discharge standards for acute malnutrition treatment: A pooled analysis of post-treatment relapse in 21 studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 123(5): 101264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101264

Keywords

Capacity Building; Malnutrition; Anthropometry; Acute Food Insecurity; Wasting Disease (nutritional Disorder)

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101264 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

The Iran war: Potential food security impacts
Issue Post
 | 
March 06, 2026

The Iran war: Potential food security impacts

By Joseph Glauber

Problems in the Strait of Hormuz reverberate globally.

Can digital cash transfers serve those in active conflict zones? Evidence from Sudan
Research Post
 | 
February 20, 2026

Can digital cash transfers serve those in active conflict zones? Evidence from Sudan

By Kibrom Abay, Lina Abdelfattah, Hala Abushama, Oliver Kiptoo Kirui, Halefom Nigus, and Khalid Siddig

Investigating how best to deliver aid.

How natural language processing and AI can help policymakers address global food insecurity
Research Post
 | 
February 12, 2026

How natural language processing and AI can help policymakers address global food insecurity

By Marieke Meeske

Scaling up data analysis to meet SDG2.

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Events

When Data Is Everywhere: Digital Research Methods Transforming Food Systems Science
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

May 14, 2026, 9:00 – 10:00 am

When Data Is Everywhere: Digital Research Methods Transforming Food Systems Science

In an era of data abundance, novel digital research methods are reshaping how we study and improve food systems. Building on earlier sessions focused on speech-based AI and farmer-generated data, this discussion broadens the lens, bringing together two researchers who are applying cutting-edge digital tools to address complex questions in the food domain.  First, Soonho Kim (Senior Data Manager, IFPRI) will introduce how Agentic AI […]

Data in Action: Getting Ahead of Crises
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

April 17, 2026, 2:30 – 4:00 pm

Data in Action: Getting Ahead of Crises

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. As global food security challenges intensify, using timely and reliable data to forecast food insecurity and malnutrition crises can prevent emerging shocks from […]

Three Years of Conflict: What the Evidence Tells Us and What Recovery Requires
Series/Special Event

 | 

April 14 to 15, 2026

Three Years of Conflict: What the Evidence Tells Us and What Recovery Requires

April 2026 marks three years since the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan, which has severely disrupted economic activity, food systems, and social services. More than half of the country’s population is in need of assistance, and communities, markets, and institutions are under unprecedented pressure.

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News

April 12, 2026 | In the News

Could the Iran war pose lasting risks to global food security? (Al Jazeera)

Avinash Kishore, IFPRI senior research fellow in New Delhi, was interviewed for the Al Jazeera’s “Inside Story” program on the Iran war risks to global food security.

April 10, 2026 | In the News

The Iran war’s agriculture shock isn’t over yet (Foreign Policy)

Foreign Policy quotes IFPRI’s Joseph Glauber who notes that energy inputs are built into food costs at nearly every step, from production and processing through transportation and retail.

April 07, 2026 | In the News

World Health Day 2026: Trade wars reshape nutrition security opportunities (Nutrition Insight)

In a World Health Day feature on nutrition and global trade, Nutrition Insight highlights analysis from IFPRI’s Purnima Menon on how global trade disruptions, conflicts, and economic shocks affect food affordability, diet diversity, and nutrition security.

View all News

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