CSM

Viva has been associated with CSM since 2007 and is responsible for programme development and finance. She has worked extensively on climate change impacts in India, and has brought a strong development perspective to CSM’s work with local and city administrations, and with the private sector.

She has guided CSM’s work on sustainable coffee, developing partnerships with growers’ groups such as the Karnataka Growers Federation (KGF).

Viva has a Post Graduate Certificaton in Environment Management from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the United Kingdom, with a focus on environmental economics, climate change and development.

Viva’s blog can be read at www.vivakermani.blogspot.com

Dr. Sukhpal Singh is Professor and Former Chairperson, Centre for Management in Agriculture (CMA), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, Former Director General, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) Chandigarh, and Former Professor and Head, Agricultural Economic Research Unit (AERU), Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), New Delhi.

He has been conferred the title of the Fellow of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics for his contributions to the discipline and the Society in 2018. He is founding co-editor, Millennial Asia-an intl. journal of Asian studies. He was a visiting fellow at the IDS, Sussex (the UK), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (Thailand), the University of Manchester (the UK); and the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark).

Professor Singh has published widely on issues of agribusiness co-ordination, especially contract farming, value chains and the WTO regime. He has 14 books, the latest ones include: Institutional innovations in the delivery of farm services in India (2018, Springer, authored), Covid-19 Pandemic and Economic Development- Emerging public policy lessons for Indian Punjab, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, co-edited) and Reverse Subsidies in Global Monopsony Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2022, co-authored). He has authored more than 150 research papers in international/national journals/edited books, besides 70 articles in newspapers and magazines.
He has been a member of various committees/working groups of the Planning Commission of India/NITI Aayog, the National Development Council, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, and the EC of the Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). He was a member of the standing working group on agri and allied sectors of Chhattisgarh State Planning Commission, and the Committee for FPO policy for Punjab and Committee on MSP and other mechanisms for farmers in Chhattisgarh. He is also a member of the recently constituted GoI Committee on MSP, Natural Farming and Crop Diversification and the National Level Committee for National Co-operative Policy.

Professor Singh specializes in issues of value chain analysis and management, vertical co-ordination in agribusiness, and agribusiness marketing and regulation. He has carried out research and consultancy studies for many national and international organizations like the FAO, WB, Oxfam, ICCO, The Netherlands, Traidcraft, UK and the GoI. He is on the Boards of many non-profits, and public and private companies working in agri and rural domain.

He teaches courses in marketing of agricultural inputs, agro/food value chain management and development, rural marketing, management of contract farming, and agricultural development and policy and offers training programmes in managing contract farming, rural marketing, capacity building of farmer producer companies, and smallholder agribusiness. Earlier, he has offered courses and training programmes on agribusiness management, global environment for agribusiness management, WTO and Indian Agribusiness, and New Vistas in Agribusiness Development.

His research interests lie in small producer and worker livelihoods and collectivization of such stakeholders in the context of agribusiness value chains and deregulation of agricultural markets in India and the developing world.

Prof. Sukhpal Singh joined the board of CSM in February 2018. 

https://www.iima.ac.in/web/faculty/faculty-profiles/sukhpal-singh

UNESCO expert on intangible cultural heritage and trainer in the Asia-Pacific region. From 2011 onwards trained government officials, researchers and academics, traditional knowledge bearers and practitioners in Indonesia, East Timor, P R China, Indonesia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka on methods to identify, document and safeguard traditional knowledge (TK) and intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Adviser to the Regional Institute in the Asia-Pacific Region for Training in ICH, in Beijing, P R China.

Served the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, as a social sector consultant for the National Agriculture Innovation Project from 2009-13, currently a resource expert to the Centre for Environment Education (under the Ministry of Environment, Government of India).

Has written a number of papers, commentaries, policy briefings and articles on aspects of agriculture and food (consumer price trends, cost of cultivation, the implications or urbanisation, resource management, agricultural knowledge systems) for policy fora and advisory bodies (such as Economic Research Foundation, New Delhi; Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune) and member of the FAO consultative forum to the Committee on Food Security.