Dr Mehroosh Tak
Department: Pathobiology and Population Sciences
Campus: Hawkshead
Research Groups: Pathogen Flow in Ecosystems, Sustainable Food Systems
Research Centres: Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health
Dr. Mehroosh Tak is an applied economist. Her research focuses on the nexus between agriculture and nutrition. Dr. Tak is interested in supervising research on economics of food systems using approaches from development economics and microeconometrics.
Dr. Mehroosh Tak is a lecturer in Agribusiness at RVC. She is an applied economist researching agricultural policies and food systems in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Much of her work evaluates nutrition-sensitivity of programmes and policies using approaches from development economics including micro-econometrics and mixed methods. Dr. Tak has previously investigated the role of public expenditures in diversifying diets and antibiotic usage in livestock production systems in India. She previously worked in International Development as a monitoring and evaluation consultant at Oxford Policy Management and IFMR/J-PAL in India evaluating randomised-controlled trials (RCTs) on agricultural interventions. Dr. Tak regularly provides monitoring and evaluation expertise on food systems and nutrition financing to international donors, such as the Department for International Development (DFID), UNICEF and the Gates Foundation. Dr. Tak is affiliated with the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), a consortium on sustainable food systems research with London School of Hygiene and tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and RVC.
2020 Choudhury, S., Shankar, B., Tak, M., Aleksandrowicz, L., Dangour, A., “A Caste-based Inequality in Fruit and Vegetables Consumption in India", Ethnicity and Health (forthcoming)
2020 Choudhury, S., Shankar, B., Aleksandrowicz, L., Tak, M., Green, R., Harris, F., Scheelbeek, P., Dangour, A., “What underlies inadequate and unequal fruit and vegetable consumption in India? An exploratory analysis”, Global Food Security, Vol 24
2019 Tak, M., Shankar, B. and Kadiyala, S., “Dietary Transition in India: Temporal and regional Trends, 1993-2012”, Food and Nutrition Bulletin.
2019 Tak, M. “Global Food Systems and Local Diets”, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 19 No. 1, Spring 2019; (pp. 103-104) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2019.19.1.103
2018 Walls, H., Joshton, D., Tak, M., Dixon, J., Hanefeld, J., Richard, R. and Hull, E., ‘"The impact of agricultural input subsidies on food and nutrition security: A systematic review", Journal of Food Security.
2018 Tak, M., Allan, S. and Picanyol, C., ‘Spotlight 5.1. Tracking government expenditure in Bangladesh and Tanzania’ in Development Initiatives, 2018. 2018 Global Nutrition Report: Shining a light to spur action on nutrition.
2017 Aleksandrowicz, L., Tak, M., Green, R., Kinra, S. and Haines, A., ‘Food consumption in India: comparison of intake estimates using national and regional-level dietary data sources’, British Journal of Nutrition 117(7), 1013-1019.
2017 Adhya, T. K., Joy, E., Agrawal, S. and Tak, M., ‘Dietary patterns and implications for reactive N flows in India’ – book chapter in Abrol, Y. P. and Adhya, T. K. (eds.), The Indian Nitrogen Assessment: Sources of Reactive Nitrogen, Environmental and Climate Effects and Management Options and Policies.
2016 Background paper for ‘Food Systems and Diets: Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century’ – Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (London, UK).
2015 Groom, B. and Tak, M., ‘Welfare Analysis of Changing Food Prices: A Nonparametric Examination of Rice Policies in India’, Journal of Food Security 7(1), 121-14.
2015 Kanter, R., Walls, H., Tak, M., Roberts, F. and Waage, J., ‘A conceptual framework for understanding the impacts of agriculture and food system policies on nutrition and health’, Journal of Food Security 7(4), 767-777.
2015 Picchioni, F. et al., ‘Agri-health research: What have we learned and where do we go next?’, Journal of Food Security 8(1), 291-298.
2014 Kanter, R. et al., ‘4th Annual Conference of the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), Agri-food policy and governance for nutrition and health, London, 3 – 4 June 2014’, Journal of Food Security 6(5), 747-753.
Podcast
Nov 2017 Tak, M and Vaghi, F, 2018, ‘Governments, markets, men, women, children - who decides which food is good?’, Episode 2 of podcast, “What is good food?”, SOAS Radio
Dr. Tak contributes to economics, business and food systems teaching at RVC. She is interested in supervising MSc and PhD projects on economics of food systems with a systems approach on agriculture to nutrition linkages. Dr. Tak is also interested in antimicrobial use in livestock production systems. Research on role of state and non-state actors in food system delivery and nutrition-sensitive programmes and policies are also encouraged.
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Achieving more sustainable British beef and sheep food systems in a changing environment
People: Barbara Haesler, Steven Van Winden, Louise Whatford, Mehroosh Tak
A transdisciplinary and systems modelling approach to investigate sustainability in British Sheep and Beef Food systems.
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Assessing social acceptability and economic impact of centralised antibiotic usage data collection for GB cattle farms
People: Mehroosh Tak, Camilla Strang, Lucy Brunton, Pablo Alarcon-Lopez, Jackie Cardwell
The aim of this project is to assess the social acceptability and economic impact of a centralised ABU data capture tool for cattle farms in different contexts in the UK.
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Enhancing political economy research skills to tackle infectious disease and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) challenges
People: Mehroosh Tak, Barbara Haesler, Ayona Silva-Fletcher
Political economy analyses ways in which economic, social, cultural and political factors determine individual and community behaviours. This project will develop a new short-course on understanding and researching AMR and infectious diseases using lessons from political economy to be launched in the spring term of 2021.
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Knowledge exchange through a Bedouin lens: a photovoice exploration of camel owner perceptions of zoonotic disease risk
People: Jackie Cardwell, Mehroosh Tak, Peter Holloway
This project is a pre-study for the MRC-funded project on MERS-CoV seroprevalence in Bedouin camel populations led by RVC with collaboration from LSHTM and Yarmouk University to start in January 2021.