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Professor Chittur Srinivasan

Photograph of Professor Chittur Srinivasan
  • Research Division Lead, Agri-Food Economics and Social Science Division
  • Programme Director, MSc Development Finance
  • Programme Director, MRes Agricultural and Food Economics

Areas of interest

  • Economics of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in agriculture- assessing the impact of IPR regimes on innovation flows. Economic impacts of WTO/TRIPs induced IPR regimes in developing countries with focus on technology transfer and foreign direct investment in the seed industry.
  • Institutional and regulatory responses to emerging technologies and their impact on innovation processes - with focus on biotechnology and genetically modified crops.
  • Diet and nutrition economics- nutrition transitions in developed and developing countries -impact of emerging dietary norms and patterns on consumer demand and the industry.

Postgraduate supervision

As Lead Supervisor

  • Nguyen Thi Huy [Vietnam]. Hybrid Rice Adoption in Vietnam (with Dr Guiseppe Nocella).
  • Karla Perez Blanco [Mexico] Food Environment and Obesity in Mexico.
  • Kehinde Odeniyi [Nigeria] Agricultural Technology Disadoption: A Case Study of NERICA Rice in Nigeria. 
  • Natthamon Suwannaprom [Thailand] Adoption of Sensor Technologies in Greenhouse Horticulture in Thailand (with Dr Guiseppe Nocella)
  • Oluwastosin Aderanti [Nigeria] Rural Transformation and Malnutrition: Three Essays on the Influence of Time Use, Physical Activity and Diet on Nutritional Outcomes (with Dr Giacomo Zanello). 
  • Jurgen Peci [Albania] Analysing Trade Policies, Sustainability and International Trade in the Global Palm Oil Industry (with Dr Marcello De Maria).
  • Opeyemi Illori [Nigeria] Adaptation to Climate Change by Poultry Farmers in Nigeria (with Dr Daniele Asioli).
  • Kwadwo Adusei Peasah [Ghana] Impact of Artisanal Small Scale Mining on Food Security in Ghana (with Dr Sanzidur Rahman).  
  • Rezoyana Rasha [Bangladesh] Impact of Improved Aquaculture Practices on Rural Livelihoods in Bangladesh (with Dr Sanzidur Rahman).

As co-supervisor

  • Chimkamna Wigwe [Nigeria] Stakeholders Effortst to Improve Livelihoods of Artisanal Fishers and Farmers Affected by Oil Spills in Nigerial (with Dr Andrew Ainslie)
  • Young Kafwembe [Zambia] Youth Enterprise and Financial Inclusion in Zambia (with Prof Henny Osbahr)

Completed PhD Supervision:

As Lead Supervisor

  • Samuel Donkoh [Ghana]. Technology Adoption and Efficiency in Ghanaian Agriculture (Completed 2006) with Professor Richard Tiffin.
  • Fidea Mgina [Tanzania]. Microfinance and Access to Financial Services for the Poor in Tanzania (Completed 2011) with Dr Henny Osbahr.
  • Giacomo Zanello [Italy]. Essays on transactions costs and information technologies (Completed 2012) with Dr Bhavani Shankar.
  • Evelyn Ahiale [Ghana]. Economic valuation of soil and water conservation technologies in northern Ghana (Completed 2012) with Professor Kelvin Balcombe.
  • Chayada Bhadrakom [Thailand]. Economic analysis of overnutrition in Thailand (Completed 2014) with Professor Richard Tiffin.
  • Mohammed Ibrahim [Nigeria]. Off-farm sector participation in rural Nigeria (Completed 2014). Sole supervisor.
  • Sophie Payne-Gifford [Canada]. Potatoes and Politics: Following EC Regulation 1107/2009 into a System of Innovation (Completed 2016) with Professor Peter Dorward.
  • Damodar Pant [Nepal]. An analysis of the effect of remittances and effect of remittance on expenditure behaviour and child welfare of households in Nepal (Completed 2017) with Dr Henny Osbahr.
  • Razan Majar [Syria]. Econometric Analysis of British Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Syrian Organic Olive Oil. (Completed 2017) with Professor Kelvin Balcombe.
  • Shakirat Ibrahim [Nigeria]. Ill-Health and Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria (Completed 2017) with Professor Nikos Georgantzis.
  • Ciro Dominguez Mendez [Mexico] Public Private Partnerships in the Development and Delivery of Crop Variety Innovations – Lessons from the MasAgro Consortium for Hybrid Maize in Mexico (with Dr Giacomo Zanello)
  • Milorad Plasvic [Serbia] Long-Term Effects of Extreme Events on Nutrient Intake from the Great Famine in China (with Dr Sanzidur Rahman).

As co-supervisor

  • Chandra Bahadur Adhikari [Nepal]. Productive Efficiency, Access to Land and Poverty - Evidence from Nepal (Completed 2007) with Professor Kelvin Balcombe.
  • Suthep Nimsai [Thailand]. Smallholders coping with food sector transformation: the role of social enterprises and modern supply chains in Thailand. (Completed 2012) with Professor Bhavani Shankar.
  • Dare Akerele [Nigeria]. Food Demand, Nutrition and Policy Analysis in Nigeria (Completed 2013) with Professor Richard Tiffin.
  • Saud Al Othman [Saudi Arabia]. The influence of government policies on agricultural production in Saudi Arabia (Completed 2014) with Professor Richard Bennett.
  • William Ibok Otu [Nigeria] Vulnerability to Food Insecurity Index: A Multi-Dimensional Model for Measuring Households’ Food Security and Vulnerability in Low, Middle-Income Countries (with Dr Henny Osbahr).
  • Aaron Alesane [Ghana] Participation in Microfinance Programmes and Poverty Reduction through Clients’ Livelihodds: The Case of the Northern Savannah of Ghana (with Dr Henny Osbahr). 
  • Shamsudeen  Abulai [Ghana[ Assessing the Exposure and Effect of Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties on Technical Efficiency and Net Rice Income of Rice Farming Households in Ghana (with Prof Richard Tranter). 
  • Savita Tangwongkit [Thailand] The Survival of Thai Sugar Producers and Stakeholders in the Wake of WTO Enforced Changes to the Thai Sugar Regime (with Dr Philip Jones). 
  • Segun Fadare [Nigeria] Conflicts, Livestock Assets, Nutrition and Health in Nigeria (with Dr Giacomo Zanello). 
 

Teaching

For MSc programmes of the Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics

  • Development Finance
  • Appraisal of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects
  • Agricultural Project Planning and Management in Developing Countries

Research projects

External

  • UKRI – Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) – Realigning UK Food Production and Trade for Transition to Healthy and Sustainable Diets – As PI, 2 year £840, 000 project. August 2023-July 2025.
  • Department for International Development/FCDO, UK, award under the “Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions” (IMMANA) programme for research project entitled Activity Spaces and Household Exclusion from Food Environments – as PI– (£250,000) – June 2022 – May 2024 -ongoing.
  • Global Challenges Round Fund (GCRF) -Strategic Allocation Funding (Substantial Research Project) as PI-Through the Looking Glass: Applying a Gender Lens to Agricultural Transformation, Labour Intensification and Nutrition Outcomes in LMICs– in partnership with the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). 1 year, £36,000 project. July 2019 – July 2022.
  • GCRF -Strategic Allocation Funding (Rapid Response Project)-as PI – Labour productivity in public work programmes: Introducing new technologies for time and motion studies in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in India- in partnership with the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India – 6 months, £35,000 project from January 2019 -July 2019.
  • GCRF Strategic Allocation Funding (Substantial Research Project)- as Co-I (with Dr Giacomo Zanello as PI) – Life-stage, occupational, and social transition: Energy expenditure and nutritional status in adolescent boys and girls – 2 year £180,000 project - December 2018-November 2020.
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) - Development of novel value chain from cocoa pod husks in Indonesia: Technological, environmental and socio-economic challenges of a value chain- As Co-I with Dr Dimitris Charalampopoulos (PI) and Professor Kelvin Balcombe and others (Co-Is). 2-year, £700,000 project. May 2017- September 2019.
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - Developing protocols for the use of wearable accelerometry and sensor-based devices in agricultural livelihoods research in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) - As PI with Dr Faustina Hwaang (Joint PI), Professor William Harwin (Co-I) and Dr Giacomo Zanello (Co-I). 6-month, £15000 project, completed March 2017.
  • Department for International Development (DfID) - New Keys for Old Black Boxes: Developing Methods to Improve Nutrition Assessment by Measuring Energy Expenditure under the Programme for Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions - with Dr Giacomo Zanello as PI. 2-year, £250,000 project, December 2016- ongoing.
  • Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) - Cognitive Segmentation of Food Choice - as Co-I with Professor Richard Tiffin (PI) and Dr Rachel McCloy (Co-I) - 48-month, £600,000 project, completed September 2017.
  • Leverhulme Trust Award for project entitled Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in UK Agriculture - as PI. 2-year, £93,000) project-August 2010-July 2012 (completed) with Dr Greenwell Matchaya (Research Fellow).
  • GTZ, Germany- Plant Variety Protection and its Impact on the Seed Industry in India - under the EU- India Trade and Investment Development Programme (€ 9,000) -as PI, completed 2007.
  • Nuffield Foundation - Assessing the Economic Values and Quality of Plant Variety Innovations using Renewal and Survival Models under Nuffield Foundation Social Science Grants Scheme (£6,994) -as PI, completed 2004.

Internal

  • University of Reading GCRF Strategic Fund - Automated human activity recognition from accelerometer data in agricultural settings in low and middle income countries (LMIC) - as Co-I with Dr Faustina Hwang & Dr Giacomo Zanello (PIs) and Professor William Harwin (Co-I), £3000 - December 2017- July 2018.
  • Research Endowment Trust Fund (RETF) - Development of innovative protocols for measuring and embedding livelihood energy expenditure profiles in nutrition actions- as PI, 6 months, £6000, completed December 2016, with fieldwork in Ghana.

Selected publications

Book Reviews:

  • Srinivasan, C.S. and Colin Thirtle (2000). Biotechnology, IPRs and Agriculture. Trends in Biotechnology, 18 (11), 480-481.

Book Chapters:

  • Srinivasan, C.S., Bhavani Shankar and C.Thirtle (2004). An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Plant Variety Protection on Innovation and Transferability. In Katrak, H. and Roger Strange (Eds.) WTO and Developing Countries, Palgrave-Macmillan.
  • Heisey, Paul W, C.S.Srinivasan and Colin Thirtle (2002). Privatization of Plant Breeding in Developing Countries: Causes, Consequences and the Public Sector Response. In Byerlee, D. and Ruben G. Echeverria (Eds.) Agricultural Research Policy in an Era of Privatization, CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.
  • Srinivasan, C.S. and Colin Thirtle (2002). Impact of terminator technologies in developing countries: a framework for economic analysis. In Swanson, T. (Ed.) Biotechnology, Agriculture and the Developing World, Edward Elgar, London, 150-176.
  • Srinivasan, C.S. and C. Thirtle (2002). Impact of Terminator Technologies in Developing Countries: A Framework for Economic Analysis. In Evenson, R.E., V. Santaniello and D.Zilberman (Eds.) Economic and Social Issues in Agricultural Biotechnology, CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.

Conference Papers:

  • Srinivasan, C.S. and Colin Thirtle (1999). Impact of Terminator Technologies in Developing Countries. Paper presented at a workshop on Terminator Technology, funded by DFID and held at UCL, Sept 26th. Now a chapter in a report submitted to DFID.
  • Srinivasan, C.S., and Colin Thirtle (2000).Winter Wheat in England and Wales: 1923-1995: What do Indices of Genetic Diversity Reveal? Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, Berlin, August 2000.
  • Srinivasan, C.S. (2000). A Review of Empirical Impact Studies of Plant Variety Protection. Paper presented at a workshop on "Economic Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Agricultural Plant Varieties in Asia". Organised by the Agricultural Research Institute (LEI), Waganingen University and Research Centre. The Hague, October 2000.
  • Srinivasan, C.S. and Bhavani Shankar (2001). Some Aspects of the International Experience of Plant Variety Protection". Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Agricultural Economics Association, Chicago, August 6-8
  • Srinivasan, C.S. (2003). Assessing Economic Returns from Farmers' Rights. Paper presented at the XXV Conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economics, Durban, South Africa in August 2003.

Publications