Mr Raghav Puri has participated in the SOFA call via the AI-based application. He is kindly sharing his submission with other participants.
"question": "Have you had the chance to review any materials related to SOFA 2023? Considering that SOFA 2024 aims to delve into the application of true cost accounting (TCA) through case studies, with the aim of advancing agrifood systems toward sustainability, do you have any recommendations to enrich the upcoming report?",
"answer": "At the Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) at Cornell University, we are undertaking a TCA study of India's Public Distribution System (PDS), a food-based safety net providing highly subsidized food grain to over 800 million individuals, to identify ways to reduce the true cost of the PDS"
"question": "For the purpose of contributing to the content of SOFA 2024, are you aware of any relevant studies assessing hidden costs or benefits within agrifood systems? If so, could you please provide the title of the study, the author(s) and hyperlink(s) to any relevant documentation. ",
"answer": "We have released our preliminary findings on promoting millets in the PDS. In this policy brief, we use TCA to estimate the true cost of providing rice, wheat, and millets through the PDS. Currently, the PDS provides most beneficiaries with 5 kilograms of food grain (a combination of rice and wheat). We use TCA to estimate the savings (in true and financial cost terms) from replacing one kilogram of rice with one kilogram of millets for one-fourth of PDS beneficiaries (~200 million individuals)."
"question": "Can you provide a brief overview of the study, including a description of the agrifood system(s) or component(s) that were the focus of the assessment?",
"answer": "https://tci.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TCI-Policy-Brief_Pro…"
"question": "Could you describe the specific hidden costs and benefits associated with the agrifood system(s) or component(s) assessed? ",
"answer": "Greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable (blue) water use."
"question": "Why was the assessment necessary to uncover and address these hidden costs?",
"answer": "The Indian government procures approximately 44 percent of rice and 41 percent of wheat produced in India. This food grain is distributed through India's food-based safety net programs (primarily the PDS) to low-income households. A large share of the rice and wheat procured come from a handful of states in India - where intensive rice and wheat cultivation results in negative environmental impacts (such as declining groundwater levels, air pollution from the burning of crop residue, and overuse of fertilizers and pesticides.\n\nThis study aims to provide alternatives to reduce the true cost of the PDS by assessing the true cost of replacing one kilogram of rice (from the current PDS allocation) with one kilogram of millets. Millets require significantly less water and are more nutritious than rice."
"question": "What were the specific hidden costs that the assessment aimed to uncover and address?",
"answer": "Quantitatively, greenhouse gas emissions and unstainable (blue) water use. Qualitatively, nutritional benefits and livelihood impacts (for millet farmers in states that do not benefit from PDS procurement)."
"Could you please tell us when the assessment took place and which years were considered in the analysis? ",
"answer": "The policy brief was released in early November 2023. The analysis takes into account production and procurement for the PDS in 2021-22."
"question": "Can you provide a concise description of the methodology employed to uncover hidden costs and benefits?",
"answer": "Existing studies were used to estimate GHG emissions and unsustainable (blue) water use for rice, wheat, and millets (Finger Millet, Pearl Millet, and Sorghum). These estimates, along with monetization factors from the Impact Institute (Netherlands) and administrative data from the government of India, were used to calculate state-wise true costs of providing rice, wheat, and millets, through the PDS."
"question": "Was the assessment complemented by additional methodologies, such as quantitative or qualitative policy or scenario analysis? Did these supplementary methods deliver interesting results? ",
"answer": "A scenario analysis was conducted to estimate the savings from replacing one kilogram of rice with one kilogram of millets for one-fourth of PDS beneficiaries (~200 million). Doing so, reduces the true cost of the PDS by $770 million (and financial cost by $110 million) - which is approximately 2.2 percent of the true cost of the PDS. The decline in true cost is primarily due to less use of blue water."
"question": "Please describe the data used in the assessment, including their source and nature. Additionally, if there were challenges related to the data availability, kindly elaborate on those challenges.",
"answer": "Data for crop-wise GHG emissions was obtained from Nayak et al. (2023) in Pedosphere, and data for unsustainable water use was obtained from Kayatz et al. (2019) in Science of the Total Environment.\n\nThe major challenges related to data included finding crop-wise and state-wise estimates for soil erosion, crop residue burning, and input use from existing studies."
"question": "Could you please highlight the key findings of this assessment? Were there any effective practices or methods that you found particularly valuable?",
"answer": "The key finding from this assessment is that the per kilogram financial cost of providing rice, wheat, and millets through the PDS (i.e. the costs associated with acquiring and distributing food grain through the PDS) are 36.7, 25.9, and 32.9, respectively. However, when costs associated with GHG emissions and unsustainable water use are accounted for in the cost of these food grains, the 'true cost' of these food grains is 68.5, 54.3, and 42.9, respectively. \n\nWhile millets are more expensive than wheat in financial cost terms, they are significantly less expensive than rice and wheat when true costs are taken into consideration.\n"
"question": "What were the effective practices or methods that you found particularly valuable during the assessment?",
"answer": "We used the Rockefeller Framework to guide our analysis - it was very helpful as we were able to use their technical appendix and publicly available excel model to guide our study."
"question": "What were the true costs of providing rice, wheat, and millets through the PDS when accounting for GHG emissions and unsustainable water use?",
"answer": "68.5, 54.3, and 42.9, respectively"
"question": "Did the assessment provide information relevant to policymakers or other stakeholders? For example, did it identify possible policy entry points to transform agrifood systems? If not, why?",
"answer": "Yes, the policy brief did provide information relevant to policymakers by identifying areas where millets are produced and highlighting the opportunities for millets farmers to benefit from PDS procurement in these areas.\n\nThe scenario analysis took into account the current production and procurement of millets (as well as beneficiaries' taste preferences) and limited the analysis to one-fourth of beneficiaries. "
"question": "Drawing upon your experience, can you identify key factors that can facilitate or hinder the success of future similar assessments for transforming agrifood systems across different contexts?",
"answer": "As we were using the Rockefeller Foundation's report on the true cost of food in the US, it was clear that many of the metrics used in the US report were not available for India. Data availability will play a key role in facilitating the application of TCA in developing country contexts.\n\nWe were lucky to receive monetization factors from the Impact Institute. If these monetization factors are made available publicly, it will definitely lead to more useful applications of TCA.\n\nFinally, TCAs focussing on national food systems are able to use national-level data or estimates. For countries like India, where subnational food systems play an important role, TCA applications will require state-level data and estimates for quantifying and monetizing costs associated with food systems."
"question": "Were there any significant challenges encountered during the assessment process? Can you identify strategies or approaches to overcome these challenges?",
"answer": "One of the major challenges was the limited availability of studies that quantify and monetize food-related impacts. However, conducting a TCA allows researchers to identify areas for future research as it highlights gaps in existing research."
"question": "Do you have any other information or comments on the use of true cost accounting assessments to uncover the hidden costs and benefits of agrifood systems that haven't been covered during this interview?",
"answer": "No"
"question": "How would you rate your overall experience with the interview conducted by the AI chatbot?",
"answer": "Very positive"
"question": "How natural did the conversation with the AI chatbot feel?",
"answer": "Somewhat natural"
"question": "If you were to participate in a future study involving a qualitative interview conducted through a AI Chatbot, would you prefer texting with the same AI Chatbot or an actual human interviewer?",
"answer": "Slightly prefer AI chatbot"
Dr. Raghav Puri