University of Michigan School of Information doctoral candidate Anubha Singh has earned a 2023 Rackham International Research Award. 

The award supports students conducting research outside the United States, assisting them with travel, living expenses and research related costs. 

Singh is currently in India studying the integration of data driven technologies in agricultural and farming practices there. She is based in Nashik, Maharashtra and is especially focused on studying the post-harvest onion supply chain. Lasalgaon town in Nashik is the biggest onion market in Asia. 

Her research focuses on questions of post-harvest agriculture supply chain digitization in non-Western countries like India and how the future of agriculture is being redefined in these regions. 

Dubbed a “sandbox city” some of the technologies being developed in Nashik include digitization of the spot market, AI based grading and sorting solutions,  and sensor based IoT devices that track the quality of onions in their post harvest life. “Since Nashik is known to be a major horticulture hub, technology, especially agriculture related technology, is constantly being tested and deployed in this district. Given how small Nashik district is, the emergence of AgriTech entrepreneurship here makes it a unique fieldsite” she says. 

“The Indian government is really pushing for building AgriTech startups in the country and Nashik is now a prominent site for developing different AgriTech products for different crops and for digitizing the agricultural supply chain processes” she adds.

“This could have huge implications for agriculture not just in India but globally,” she says. “Given the recent investment and the partnerships that US based tech companies, like Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco, have formed with the Indian government to digitize Indian agriculture, my research is very timely.”

Singh’s research spans 16 months and she has taken multiple trips to India to conduct her multi sited ethnographic research. She is expected to graduate in 2025 and will return to Michigan in January 2024 to work on her dissertation. She is co-advised by Silvia Lindtner and Patricia Garcia. 

“The award heavily supports my research activities,” she says. “A lot of this is rural, remote work, and India is currently witnessing several heat waves and extreme climate events. Given this reality, it’s difficult to study agriculture and this award helps pay for extra resources, transportation, reimbursing research participants, and rent. I’m very grateful for this award.” 

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Learn more about Anubha and her research by visiting her UMSI profile and personal website.  

Read about other doctoral candidates enrolled in UMSI’s PhD in Information program by visiting our Faces of UMSI profiles.