Update on INFUSION formative work in Bihar

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by GregPostdocs!

I am not too sure how three months have passed since my last post, but here I am, sat on the 14:22 from Reading to Sheffield after arriving home from Delhi last night. Leaving India is something that I never really look forward to, although, it is a constant reminder of exactly how fortunate and privileged I am to be able to frequently travel to a place that I know and love!

INFUSION formative work – a recap

The last couple of months have witnessed the formative research activities of the Indian Food Systems for Improved Nutrition (INFUSION) project really gather steam. As a quick recap, we are currently conducting a series of qualitative data collections in Bhojpur and Samastipur districts of Bihar, aiming to better understand the barriers and enablers of nutrient-dense food consumption (i.e., fruits and vegetables and animal­-source foods) across a variety of study villages. These villages differ in terms of their geographical settings, including by distance to the block headquarters (e.g., Nansagar village in Sandesh block is 10 km from the town of Sandesh, while Chilhauns village is 3km from Sandesh), total population (as per the 2011 census), and the distance to the nearest main road.

Thinking about the importance of roads in the distribution of foods to and from markets, we used this latter metric to first stratify and then randomly sample three villages in each of our four study blocks; for example, in Kalyanpur block of Samastipur district, Madanpur village is 2.85 km from a main road, whilst Sahuri village village is less than 300 metres.  

The INFUSION ‘food environment’ team heading out to the field from Arra, Bhojpur. From L-R: myself, Bhavani (University of Sheffield), Megh (student intern/translator from Delhi University), Sandeep (Microsave Consulting), Koumodee (Microsave Consulting), and Apoorva (Indian School of Business).

Our data collections cover three major themes, namely (i) the physical attributes and the local population’s experiences of the existing sources of nutrient-dense foods in and around our study villages, (ii) the general financial and non-financial (e.g., socio-cultural) barriers to nutrient-dense food consumption, and (iii) the ways in which JEEViKA’s Food Security Fund (FSF) may be adapted to enable the procurement and distribution of foods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, fish and chicken (further details on the FSF can be read here). Insights gained during this stage will be critical to inform the design of our two market-based interventions (‘didi haats’ and the ‘Nutrition Security Fund’), which represent collaborations between the INFUSION team and JEEViKA, and will be the focus of our work from early-2024 onwards.

(Physical and experienced) characteristics of local food environments

As described by Chris Turner and colleagues’ ‘Food Environment framework’, the quality of a personal or community food environment is a combination of the number and range of food sources with food available (in this case, nutrient-dense foods), and the personal/lived experiences of these sources, for example, with regards to food hygiene, convenience, and accessibility.

Permanent store for vegetables in Chaksaho village, Patori block, Samastipur, located just across the river from our study village of Araia.

Despite rural Bihar being a major region of vegetable and seasonal fruit cultivation, options to purchase such items (especially important for landless households) tend to be (a) a once- or twice-weekly local haats or pethias (small village markets), (b) a handful of vendors on scooters or rickshaws who may visit the village a couple of times per week, (c) a longer trip to the local block headquarters, and/or (d) a friendly neighbour with excess production from their farm or kitchen garden. Whilst appearing both diverse and numerous when listed, each of these sources are vulnerable to disruption, especially during times of extreme monsoonal rainfalls or summer temperatures that exceed 40°C in the shade. For example, women in Sandesh block of Bhojpur district described how a 40-minute walk doubles in duration during the summer season, with non-existent sources of shade, water or sanitation in the fields which connect Kholpur village to the nearby town of Akhgaon.

Auto-rickshaws provide an alternative to walking. However, a trip to the local town can cost as much as 20-30 rupees in both directions – which is often equivalent to two kilograms of vegetables in the local market. Geographical features beyond distance alone may also present barriers, as in the case of Araia village in Samastipur district, where a visit to the local market requires crossing a river on a coracle raft! Whilst our ride was certainly a novel experience, I am not too sure how fun it would be during the peak of the monsoon!

Coracle rafts connect the village of Araia in Samastipur district to the local market for fruits, vegetables and animal-sourced foods in Chaksaho. Note the relatively low water level; locals explained how the water can reach up to the base of the bridge during normal monsoon seasons (this year has been particularly dry in Bihar).

Looking forward to the next few months

In addition to mapping the sources of nutrient-dense foods, we are also conducting a series of in-depth qualitative interviews (alongside our colleagues at MicroSave Consulting), focused on the experiences of women in and around their local food environment. For example, to what extent does crossing a river present a problem for market access (or does it at all)? How do their experiences of food safety and hygiene vary by season? What, if anything, would they like to change with regards to the number, range, and location of outlets for nutrient-dense foods?

With the interviews set to wrap-up by the end of September, our focus will swiftly turn to transcription and translation. We are super conscious that simply building new markets (‘didi haats’) is not a precondition to success; new sources of nutrient-dense foods must be sensitive to the existing food environment and market systems, socio-cultural food practices, financial and non-financial barriers experienced by the local communities, and ultimately sustainable across all these different dimensions. Therefore, a major next step for us is to integrate the food environments work with the two other parallel streams of data collection, in addition to a business case for ‘didi haats’ being led by the Indian School of Business (ISB), which will hopefully enable us to develop the contours of a new market intervention to bring the sources of nutrient-dense foods closer to rural communities.

(Apologies, this post has been longer than usual. Sometimes I find it useful to just type these ideas out – partly to aid my own understanding!)

On a lighter note, I was fortunate to be able to sneak in some downtime at the end of the trip, with a trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi. My first time in Karnataka, the ruins, the architecture, and the landscape really were sights to behold. It was difficult to fit everything in over a whirlwind two days – so hopefully it won’t be too long before I visit again.

I’ll sign off here and say thank you for reading; the autumn looks set to be an exciting time for INFUSION as we dive-deeper into our insights from the field; please stay tuned!

Until next time, G.