Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923

A N N A L S O F T H E N E W Y O R K A C A D E M Y O F SC I E N C E S Issue: Paths of Convergence for Agriculture, Health, and Wealth

Convergent innovation for affordable nutrition, health, and health care: the global pulse roadmap Srivardhini K. Jha,1,2 John McDermott,2 Gordon Bacon,3 Chris Lannon,1 P. K. Joshi,4 and Laurette Dube´ 1,5 1

McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE), McGill University, Montreal, Canada. ´ Quebec, ´ International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC. 3 Pulse Canada, Winnipeg, Canada. 4 International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi, India. 5 Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, ´ Quebec, ´ Canada. 2

Address for correspondence: Srivardhini K. Jha, McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. [email protected]. ´ Quebec, ´

The paper outlines how the principles of convergent innovation (CI) can be applied to bring about a transformation in the pulse value chain. The paper presents three pioneering CI initiatives––two in conception and one in operation–– by various actors in the pulse ecosystem, which are delivering economic and human development impact in particular segments of the pulse value chain. It goes on to propose the way forward to scale up these efforts and connect them into a roadmap so as to achieve transformation throughout society, calling into action a number of actors in the ecosystem. Keywords: convergent innovation; pulse value chain; value chain transformation; agriculture; health

Introduction The exposition of convergent innovation (CI) by Dub´e and colleagues1 underscores the importance of moving economic growth, nutrition, and health in lockstep to achieve development in an inclusive and sustainable manner. CI links siloed science, technologies, and processes from different sectors to maximize availability, access, and use of their single and combined output to meet the health and economic needs and preferences of individuals and communities, with a special attention to the most underprivileged populations. It also permeates the boundaries of technological innovation to harness the power of many other types of innovations, such as organizational, social, institutional, and financial innovations through a collaborative approach to transform communities, industries, and value chains. The CI roadmaps are a set of innovative, targeted, and goal-oriented initiatives that allow for the creation of partnerships to attain real-world results, and a new collaboration model that unites business, government, civil society, and academia to build a healthier world. This new paradigm of development provides a framework to address complex

social issues, such as the ones that exist at the nexus of agriculture, nutrition, and health. The purpose of this roadmap paper is to discuss the way forward by outlining concrete projects that will put this new paradigm of development into practice. An area that is ripe for CI is the pulse value chain. Pulsesa are a group of commodities that are an affordable and environmental-friendly source of protein, micronutrients, complex carbohydrate, and several vitamins and minerals. While it has been suggested that meat, dairy, and poultry are also viable sources of proteins, pulses remain the most affordable2 and are especially significant in lowincome countries. Furthermore, they are also the primary source of protein in countries with a large vegetarian population like India.2 Apart from being a source of protein, pulses are known to have multiple health benefits.3 Consumption of pulses has been found, in clinical trials, to keep blood pressure under control,4 increase a

Pulses, members of the legume family, include varieties of dried seeds such as dried peas, edible beans, lentils, and chickpeas, which are the most common varieties. doi: 10.1111/nyas.12543

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satiety, reduce BMI and risk of obesity,5 reduce the risk of diabetes,6,7 and help to prevent cardiovascular diseases.8 In uncontrolled population-based studies, the health improvements from pulse consumption are not as strongly seen, indicating the considerable complexity of assessing the impact of dietary changes among a number of other factors associated with health status. Further large-scale studies to assess health benefits are potentially important, given the increasing incidence of diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases, such as hypertension and obesity, in the developed as well as developing countries,9 accruing to a worldwide healthcare burden of U.S. $47 trillion from 2010 to 2030.10 In India alone, the number of diabetics and prediabetics is estimated at a whopping 140 million.11 Despite their agricultural, environmental, nutritional, and health benefits, the production and consumption patterns of pulses show a worrisome trend. Global yields of chickpea and pigeon pea–– two grain legumes that play an important role in the food and nutrition security of the poor in developing countries of Asia–– are low and have been relatively stagnant for much of the last two decades.12 India is the prime contributor to these trends, owing to its large share in the global production and consumption of these crops. Pulse production in India remained relatively flat until 2011, with Green Revolution crops such as paddy and wheat crowding pulses out.13 The reasons are manifold, including high production risk (pulse crops are susceptible to abiotic and biotic stresses), scattered production and consumption centers, and unorganized processing and marketing sectors.2,12,13 At the same time, the per-capita consumption of pulses in India fell from 61 g in 1951 to 30 g in 2008.2 However, the consumption rate of the poorest rural areas and lower to middle-income groups rose between 2009 and 2010, as decline continued in the upper middle class and the highest income groups. Notably, supply has failed to keep pace with the demand from an exploding population. In addition, pulses are grown as residual, rain-fed crops on marginal lands with little or no modern yield-enhancing inputs.2 This low priority accorded to pulse crops2 means that the production of these crops is much more uncertain and production increases are limited without smart investments in technology, institutional arrangements, and policy.

Convergent innovation: the global pulse roadmap

In the developed world, many countries, such as Canada and Australia, have developed pulseproducing hubs owing to favorable agro ecological conditions, scientific farming techniques, and streamlined market linkages. Canada alone supplies approximately 35% of the internationally traded pulses each year. While pulses have been introduced in a limited manner into certain product categories such as meal centers, soups, and spreads, they are yet to make inroads into many popular categories such as pasta, noodles, and biscuits.14 As a result, these countries have focused more on the export of pulses rather than leveraging their increased supply for domestic consumption.15 Considering the many health benefits of pulses cited earlier that tap directly into the prevention and management of diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), we could view investment in promoting domestic demand as a strategy to contain the growth of healthcare costs. From the above, it is clear that the issues limiting the development of pulse value chains for achieving sustainable production and healthier diets are multidimensional. In developing countries like India, there is potential to boost production, improve processing, and increase consumption while ensuring that the marginalized farmers retain a fair share of the value created. In developed countries, introducing pulses into the mainstream diet could lead to better long-term health outcomes and accelerate the nutritional improvement of industrial food products. Together, such a transformation has the potential to reduce the healthcare burden associated with obesity and NCDs, contribute to more environmentally sustainable agricultural systems, support income growth for smallholders, develop more efficient input and output markets, and link rural areas with urban centers. In order to transform the pulse sector and move forward, we outline a pulse CI roadmap in this paper. The roadmap essentially serves two purposes: 1. It serves as a platform to seed and nurture CI projects across the pulse value chain, each leading to convergent outcomes in different segments of the value chain. In other words, it takes a modular approach, breaking down the complex challenge of pulse value chain transformation into tractable projects.

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2. Having successfully piloted the modular projects, the roadmap also acts as a unifying platform, providing a blueprint to link together the various projects seeded as part of the roadmap, as well as other related pioneering efforts by actors throughout society. Together, this would lead to convergent outcomes across the entire value chain. This pulse roadmap will articulate three CI projects that can together transform the pulse value chain, encompassing producers, consumers, and other actors in between, which include large, medium, and small private traders, processors, and other enterprises. Two of these (1 and 3 in the following list) are pilot projects being seeded as part of this roadmap, and the other (2) is an instance of a business-led initiative that is already in place. The three projects are: 1. the Pulse Innovation Partnership (PIP)––a consortium-based project to support pulsebased food innovation at scale, while simultaneously seeding behavioral changes to increase demand for pulse-based products; 2. the Tata More Pulse (MoPu) initiative––a private enterprise–led initiative to improve pulse production, processing, and consumption, while equitably distributing the value created across the value chain; and 3. the Odisha Pulse CI pilot––a collaborative project involving nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private enterprises, and research institutes to simultaneously drive positive income, nutrition, and health outcomes for the smallholder farmer households (i.e., an all-around development of smallholders). These projects engage with actors in the value chain as well as other stakeholders such as NGOs and government agencies for effective transformation. They weave together a bundle of technological, institutional, and other types of innovations to simultaneously drive wealth and health outcomes. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. We will first describe each of the roadmap projects, highlighting the CI concepts and outcomes. We will then propose the way forward to scale up these efforts and connect them, calling into action a number of actors in the ecosystem, ranging from government 144

agencies and NGOs to private enterprises and philanthropies to effect changes in policy and practice to facilitate this transformation. Pulse Innovation Partnership The PIP is an alliance of public and private organizations, civil society, and academia committed to improving the nutritional quality and health benefits of pulse-based processed foods. It is a partnership between public-sector actors such as the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), producers and industry groups such as the International Pulse Trade and Industries Confederation (CICILS-IPTIC) and Pulse Canada, and private companies. PIP is organized as an open-innovation platform bringing together actors from all stages of the pulse value chain to work in a collaborative model, taking consumer needs and preference as the starting point and moving back to the farm and tapping into various processing technologies and demand drivers to improve the accessibility, affordability, and appeal of nutrition improvement at different points along the chain. The PIP is a novel form of organization, one that is hinged on open innovation16 and co-opetition17 to overcome market constraints impeding more rapid innovation. The composition of the platform epitomizes co-opetition––simultaneous competition and cooperation17,18 (i.e., the core members of the PIP may be competitors but cooperate to build technologies and policies that can create a new food category). Furthermore, the co-opetition facilitates multiple open-innovation projects by providing a platform for food companies to interact closely and innovate with upstream as well as downstream value-chain actors (i.e., engage in open innovation).16 Thus, by engaging in co-opetition and open innovation, the PIP is able to transform the market to allow for faster innovation and better performance of market actors. With reference to private partners, the partnership aspires to first bring together companies that play key connecting roles in pulse value chains between agricultural supply and the consumption of foods. These include companies that provide processing technologies (e.g., Buhler), ingredients (e.g., Firmenich), and micronutrients (e.g., DSM) on the supply side and, on the demand side, trading

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Convergent innovation: the global pulse roadmap

Figure 1. The proposed Pulse Innovation Partnership (PIP).

companies (e.g., Hakan Foods) and marketing firms (e.g., Leo Burnett). These companies together assemble the entire spectrum of technological and operational capabilities needed by food companies to source, develop and market innovative pulsebased products (Fig. 1). The PIP aspires to partner at the country level with small, medium, and large food companies in multiple geographies in domestic and international markets, providing them need-based knowledge services for innovation and marketing, opening up a large two-way innovation funnel and market access for pulse-based products. This could provide a channel for the traditional knowledge and grass-root food innovations to flow into industrial innovation pipelines. At the global level, CICILS-IPTIC, a core member of the partnership, has been instrumental in having the United Nations (UN) declare 2016 the “International Year of Pulses.” This is important in raising the profile of pulses as well as enabling the linkage of global and national pulse innovations. For large multinational food corporations that have their own innovation capacities, commitment to scale up their pulse products portfolio and/or the share of pulse as an ingredient in moving toward the 2016 Inter-

national Year of Pulses can accelerate progress. Furthermore, the partnership also has representation from the pulse-growing communities in Canada and Australia, enabling producers to align pulse research and production with the emergent consumer preference and requirements of food innovators. In other words, the involvement of producer organizations on the one hand and food companies on the other facilitates a bidirectional flow of information and knowledge between the production and marketing ends of pulse value chain. The PIP plans to provide three types of knowledge services to country-level partners: innovation services, marketing services, and policy support. Each service (innovation, marketing, and policy support) will contain a bundle of public, toll, and private goods. Public goods are those that are available to all,19 irrespective of their affiliation to the PIP. However, PIP membership would facilitate access to these public goods. Toll goods are those that are available to all actors with a certain affiliation,19 in this case, the PIP members. Private goods are those that have a private ownership, sometimes protected by intellectual property and may be transacted for a fee using market mechanisms.19

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Table 1. Services available through the Pulse Innovation Partnership

Public goods Innovation services

None

Marketing services

None

Policy support

All (e.g., International Year of Pulses)

Innovation services from the PIP can include mixes of all three types of goods––public, toll, and private. It will be interesting, as the PIP evolves, to see what different innovations or combinations of innovations will be demanded. Private goods may include technology-based support for food companies to develop pulse products and could span technologies for all stages of physical processing and technologies for sensory experience. While individual companies would capture most of the benefits, there may be public returns owing to faster and smarter innovation. Marketing services might include consumer and market intelligence and marketing support for taking the pulse-based products to consumers. Some of these, such as consumer and market intelligence, may be provisioned as toll goods, while marketing support would be transacted as a private good. The innovation and marketing services provisioned will depend on the food innovators and their own capacity for innovation and marketing. For instance, the large food companies may have most of the capabilities required to develop and market pulse-based products in-house and would access a limited number of innovation and marketing services. On the other hand, the small and medium-sized food companies might avail more support for innovation and marketing. Finally, policy support would function by way of joining forces to work with government agencies to frame policies that might encourage pulse consumption and/or pulse production. A unified platform such as the PIP would provide its members a more effective channel to negotiate policy decisions as compared to working independently with government agencies. By definition, policy support would be a public good, at least within a given jurisdiction. However, members of the PIP would have early information and access to this public good owing to their role in framing the policy. In sum,

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Toll goods

Private goods

Few (e.g., help build prototype) Few (e.g., market intelligence) None

Many (e.g., flavor/texture required for the product) Many (e.g., run marketing campaigns) None

the PIP is a platform that provides flexible strategic and operational support to promoting pulse consumption. Table 1 illustrates how many and what type of services may be made available through PIP. The PIP is not only pursuing the important humanitarian goal of promoting the consumption of a nutritious commodity but also aspiring to do so in a financially sustainable manner. Sustainability and viability are key considerations for the PIP, and several models are under discussion to achieve these. For instance, each of the for-profit enterprises in the PIP could put down a seed fund that would be used to finance the PIP operations. This is not by way of charity but as a strategic investment toward being an early entrant in new food categories. In return, this would allow the private actors to develop their business and profit from it in the long term. In addition, they also accumulate goodwill as socially responsible organizations. The pulse-producer organizations are able to plan their long-term strategies in tune with the emerging innovations and consumption patterns. Together, they are able to influence policy much more effectively than any actor could individually. This is evident from how the PIP members under the leadership of CICILS-IPTIC were able to persuade the UN to declare 2016 as the “International Year of Pulses.” In sum, the PIP delivers positive outcomes to all the partners in a sustainable manner. However, it also comes with its share of challenges. For instance, the PIP is a platform with heterogeneous actors pursuing heterogeneous interests with respect to strategic priorities, expected return on investment, locus of action (developed vs. developing countries), and many other parameters. The ability to balance individual interests with that of the collective is crucial to success. Furthermore, as with any first-of-its-kind efforts, there are many unforeseen situations. A high level of commitment and

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trust from the core partners is required to resolve such emergent situations and persist with the vision. The PIP presents a very novel and unique case of CI. Analyzing it using Figure 2 as the frame, we find that the initiative brings strategic engagement from several private-sector players, creating the capacity to innovate at scale. In addition, the partnership epitomizes collective action spanning academia, government, and several industrial sectors. It also hinges on a deep understanding of human behavior and decision making, which is crucial to developing products that are appealing to the consumer palate, budget, and consumption patterns. Using these key enablers as a springboard, the PIP is looking to unleash a number of innovations. First, it aspires to facilitate technological innovations from food companies to bring new pulse-based products to the market. In supporting such innovations, there might be new innovations in the processing technologies as well. Second, the structure and processes to enable multiple actors spanning industrial sectors to work together to develop new products is an innovation in itself, an organizational innovation. Third, the unique business model of the PIP is a financial innovation. If the PIP were to move ahead with the financial model outlined above, each for-profit organization in the PIP would make a credible commitment by investing into the PIP but would do so as a strategic prerogative, over time reaping the benefits of the investment. The seed investment would be used to fund marketing and policy-negotiation activities that can strengthen the pulse industry ecosystem. In the long run, this sets up a virtuous cycle, benefiting all partners. Finally, the PIP, through active participation from academia, industry, and civil society, can seed institutional innovation, as it did by having 2016 declared as the “International Year of Pulses.” In the future, institutional innovations might come about in various forms, including subsidies/coupons for pulse-based products, and inclusion in child nutrition–enhancing schemes such as the midday meal program in India. It is worth noting that the innovations are mutually reinforcing and would cease to have the same impact in isolation. Without the organizational innovation, it would be impossible to unleash technological innovations at scale. The financial innovation is intimately linked to institutional innovation, which in turn encourages more food companies to

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join the PIP, further reinforcing technological innovation. These innovations together deliver economic growth for the for-profit actors while simultaneously offering healthy food options to consumers, pushing forward an important facet of human development––availability and access to a nutritious and healthy diet. This CI project promises to transform the food innovation and consumption part of the pulse value chain. Tata MoPu/i-Shakti Initiative The Tata MoPu initiative, jointly spearheaded by Tata Chemicals and its agrochemical subsidiary, Rallis India, came out of Tata Sons’ long-term strategic initiative, “Where is agriculture headed?” Under this broad umbrella, the company decided to address the pulse value chain, given the nutritional importance of pulses and the inefficiencies that plagued the value chain, making India a net importer of pulses. This initiative is one of the several pioneering business-driven initiatives that have now started to transform value chains and food innovations. Tata Chemicals Ltd., a Tata group company, is a global company with a mission to serve society through science. The company’s corporate philosophy is deeply rooted in the principles of sustainability, which implies a commitment to environmental stewardship while adding economic value, promoting human rights and building social capital.b To this end, the company has unveiled several products such as iodized salt and unpolished pulses that not only add economic value to the firm itself but also deliver health benefits to the society at large. The initiative was piloted in the Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu as a public–private partnership (PPP) project, in partnership with the government of Tamil Nadu, and sought to streamline every stage of the pulse value chain, from production to processing and marketing. Rallis created a team of extension workers to diffuse its innovation in pulse seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers. The extension workers worked closely with farming communities, advising them on scientific farming techniques such as soil testing, irrigation methods, and water harvesting, in addition to providing

b

http://www.tatachemicals.com/Sustainability/overview. htm#.UZw89LU3Dzw.

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Figure 2. Convergent innovation.

timely access to high-quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. In order to effectively reach out to all the farmers, Rallis leveraged a technology platform by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) called mKRISHI. The platform allowed extension workers to resolve farmer queries within 24 h using the back-end support of agriculture experts. Once the feasibility of this model was established, the initiative was scaled up and rolled out in Maharashtra and Karnataka as well. The Maharashtra government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rallis to roll out MoPu as a PPP project, where the package of best practices offered by Rallis was subsidized by the government, with the goal of boosting pulse production. The package of practices covered 14 elements related to inputs, production, harvest, procurement, capacity building, and awareness generation.20 Furthermore, an amendment of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act by the Maharashtra government in 2006 facilitated private markets to participate actively in direct marketing. Farmers were able to sell their produce in open markets and were not constrained by APMC market yards. With 148

this institutional support, the project expanded to over 35,000 farmers in 372 villages across three districts of Maharashtra.20 As a result of this project, farmers from across the three districts reported a 30–65% increase in productivity.20 The primary reason for the enhanced productivity was the availability and application of the right pesticides and fertilizers.20 The farmers also saved on inputs, since the fertilizer dosage was based on the results of soil testing, a practice of which they were unaware before the intervention. Furthermore, Rallis set up a procurement center that assured buyback at prices more competitive than the local market.20 However, this was used only by farmers who were within a 50-km radius of the procurement center. In sum, the farmers realized increased productivity, cost savings, and reliable market linkages. The scale of the project also helped partner with banks such as HDFC and the State Bank of India that opened zero balance account for the farmers. This facilitated a direct transfer of money from Rallis to the farmers for the produce procured, reducing delay and ensuring full benefit to the farmers.

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Tata Chemicals, in turn, procured the pulses from Rallis and marketed them under the i-Shakti brand, moving a loosely sold category to a branded category. Furthermore, i-Shakti pulses are unpolished. This means, while processing i-Shakti pulses, no marble powder (very harmful for intestines), oil polish (added fat), water polish (source of water is unknown), or leather belt polish (animal skin touch) is added.c This ensures that pulses retain higher protein content, making it a healthier choice for consumers. The project has significantly improved the pulse value chain in these pockets, delivering positive outcome for all the players involved. For Rallis, it has provided a direct marketing channel and a deep understanding of the regional characteristics, allowing the company to develop micronutrients tailored to particular region and soil quality.d They are also aiming to connect with 3.5 million farmers over the next 5 years. For Tata Chemicals, it provides a dependable source of high-quality pulses to take to market. In fact, sales of i-Shakti pulses doubled between 2010 and 2012, reaching 15,000 tons in 2012. The company expects to cross over a million tons a year in the next few years.e For the farmers, it has delivered productivity gains in excess of 30%, leading to increased income. For the respective state governments, the initiative has boosted pulse production and the net agricultural output of the region. Finally, the consumers have benefited from having access to branded, less-processed, healthier pulses. In essence, the PPP has created value for all the entities in the pulse value chain as well as the public-sector partner. It is clear that in order to deliver such a multitude of outcomes, the MoPu initiative weaved together multiple innovations––technological and others. Let us analyze the initiative from the lens of CI, represented by the multilayered structure of Figure 2. The initiative involves strategic engagement by large private enterprises such as Rallis and Tata Chemicals, which is crucial to bringing in formal market mechanisms and building capacity in an

c

http://www.tatachemicals.com/products/pulses.htm. Rallis presentation in symposium, “Creating shared value in Agribusiness,” March 2012. e Source: http://www.tata.com, article “Pluses in a Pulses play,” December 2012. d

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informal sector. It also mobilizes the farming community and brings together actors from multiple sectors (government entities, private actors from agricultural and financial sectors) to act collaboratively. Finally, it leverages the digital platform, mKRISHI, to scale the effort. In other words, it has three key enablers of CI in place. Using these key enablers as a platform, the initiative unleashes a bundle of innovations. Rallis brings in technological innovations in seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. This is supported by the social-process innovation that creates a community of pulse farmers, equipping them with scientific farming techniques linked to their access to inputs, cutting normally high transaction costs. The institutional innovation, in the form of an amendment to the APMC Act and the subsidy for the package of practices, creates a structural and financial environment that facilitates pulse production and its marketing. The institutional innovation, in fact, provides the resources necessary to unleash social process and technological innovations. The financial innovation of zero-balance accounts allows cashless transactions, reducing transactional leakage. Finally, the collaboration between Rallis and Tata Chemicals to procure the pulses grown by Rallis’ farmers is an organizational innovation that integrates the rural community into the industrial value chain and again provides lower transactions costs for large numbers of smallholders from input supply through output markets. It is important to note that each innovation reinforces the other, and the absence of one innovation would limit the realization of the full potential of other innovations. For instance, without social-process innovation, the diffusion of technological innovation would be limited. Similarly, absence of institutional innovation would inhibit the extent of social-process innovation possible for lack of resources. Without technological innovation, all other innovations would have a limited impact on productivity. By the same token, the presence of technological innovations and social-process innovations creates an impetus for institutional innovation. Thus, innovations are intricately linked and mutually reinforcing. The MoPu/i-Shakti initiative is a fine example of a CI effort, bringing a nutritious and healthy product to the consumer and doing so in a way that generates fair economic value to all value-chain actors,

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including the marginalized smallholder farmers. It underscores the power of strategic engagement by private enterprises in addressing complex social issues at the intersection of economics and health. It also moves practice a long way ahead on collaborative approaches to solving complex societal problems and opens the door for future collaborations with actors who can simultaneously drive a multitude of human development outcomes. However, this initiative has been undertaken in Maharashtra and Karnataka, which are established pulse-growing hubs. In other words, they have the scale. Furthermore, these states are resource rich, with good infrastructure to support distribution and logistics. These factors make them attractive for private investment. The question is––can this model be extended to marginal, resource-poor areas that have fragmented pockets of pulse production? In the short term, the answer would be negative. In resource-poor areas, the focus should be on building enough capacity and scale to attract strategic investment from large private enterprises. In the interim, such areas would need participation from NGOs and firms with hybrid business models such as for-benefit enterprises.21 The next project falls in this category. Odisha Pulse CI pilot The CI pilot in the resource-poor state of Odisha, India is targeted at the smallholder farmer households that face a double whammy––they are not only marginalized in economic activity but are also vulnerable to poor health and malnutrition. They are trapped in a vicious loop where their poor economic condition does not afford them nutritious food or quality health care, and that, in turn, affects their ability to undertake economic activity (agriculture) effectively, pushing them further into a downward spiral of financial debt, poverty, and ill health. The goal of this CI pilot is to simultaneously create economic growth for smallholder farmers by equipping them to participate effectively in industrial value chains and deliver nutritional awareness and quality health care, leading to well-rounded and sustainable development. The pilot is a collaborative effort between NGOs, for-benefit enterprises, and research institutes to build agricultural capacity and nutrition/health awareness. It is an effort toward advancing a new model of development, one that puts nutrition and 150

health care right alongside economic growth, preempting many of the lifestyle diseases that often result from a single-minded focus on economic development. It stands in contrast to prevailing models, where health care is reactive and called upon to address the adverse effects of economic growth that is divorced from a long-term view of health. The pilot is a collaborative project between PRADAN, an NGO with extensive reach into agrarian communities in rural Odisha; iKure, a social business that provides affordable and quality primary health care in rural areas using technology; the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a research institute with expertise in agriculture and nutrition; and MCCHE, a research center that is advancing the theory and practice of CI. The partners, individually and collectively, will roll out several innovations to achieve progress on economic and human development dimensions. First, the Odisha region has been found to have tremendous potential for pulse cultivation,22 which is currently underutilized. Lentils and chickpeas will be used as the entry point for enabling the farming communities to grow and increase the production of pulses. High-yielding varieties of these crops developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the National Agricultural Research System (NARS), or the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (IRCADA) will be selected on the basis of their suitability for the region. These innovations will be disseminated through PRADAN’s extensive network of community service providers (CSPs) and self-help groups (SHGs). Second, this intervention will be overlaid with behavioral-change intervention through awareness about nutrition, especially mother and child nutrition. This intervention will also be leveraged to channel a part of the locally grown healthy produce into people’s daily diet. For instance, seeding behavioral change to increase pulse consumption (which is grown locally) will help to reduce the incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and other lifestyle diseases that are the likely by-products of economic growth in the absence of nutritional awareness. A set of context-specific digital content will be created in partnership with IFPRI and other nutrition-domain experts and embedded into the community through PRADAN’s field network of CSPs and SHGs. Such an intervention to seed healthy eating habits at the

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same time as driving economic growth will improve the overall long-term health of the population and reduce the future healthcare burden on society. Finally, iKure will provide exposure to preventive as well as curative health care by creating a comprehensive health panel for the pilot region and creating a health intervention package that will address the top three health issues of the region. iKure specializes in providing affordable and quality primary rural health care using technology. While telemedicine has been proposed as a solution for rural health care, it is not suited to remote locations. It requires high bandwidth, high capital investment, and doctor presence in real time for consultation. iKure addresses the gaps in telemedicine through two innovations––technology- and services-integrated platform and last-mile health worker incubation and project management. Using this unique model, iKure will deploy a combination of mechanisms–– health camps, remote consultation, and technologybacked monitoring––to address the most pressing health issues of the region. Leveraging PRADAN’s field network to drive awareness and demand for health care, iKure’s health intervention will provide preventive measures aiming to dampen and slow the progress of diabetes and other modern health issues, as well as to provide access to qualified medical professionals for timely diagnosis and treatment of diseases of poverty and affluence alike. The bundle of agriculture, nutrition, and health interventions will not only improve the economic well-being of the smallholder households, but it will also ensure that the increase in income is partly directed toward positive nutrition and health outcomes for smallholder households, with particular focus on women and young children. The wellrounded development of smallholder households will enable them to rapidly move out of subsistence and participate in mainstream economic activity. Apart from the target population, the project delivers positive outcomes to all partners engaged, for profit or otherwise. Viewing the pilot through the lens of CI (Fig. 2), we find that the project engages all four key enablers of CI. Digital technologies play a key role is scaling the interventions, be it driving nutritional awareness or creating access to primary health care. The project mobilizes the community through CSPs and SHGs and brings together actors from private, nonprofit, and research sectors. The project has, in

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iKure, a private, for-profit healthcare enterprise as a partner. Strategic engagement by private firms is somewhat limited at the outset but is likely to grow as the project delivers outcomes. We also find that a deep understanding of human behavior and decision making is crucial to ensure the success of behavioral change thorough nutritional awareness. The project also weaves together several types of innovations. Technological innovations in the agricultural sector in the form of new pulse varieties are crucial to raise the yield and income of the target population. These technological innovations are effectively diffused through social-process innovations that take the form of SHG formation and associated processes. The partners coming together to create context-relevant nutritional awareness content is an instance of organizational innovation. Similarly, iKure joining hands with PRADAN to create a demand for quality health care is also an organizational innovation. Financial and institutional innovations are limited at the outset but are likely to come in prominently as the project progresses and more actors join hands. The partners and the bundle of synergistic innovations they roll out are together expected to lead to convergent outcomes (i.e., simultaneous achievement of economic growth and human development). The increase in income from agriculture combined with nutritional awareness for longterm good health and a simultaneous redress of the most pressing health condition promises to develop the community on economic and health dimensions, making the development sustainable and well rounded. Such a convergent model of development, epitomized by this pilot and the other initiatives discussed above, has many implications for development practice, policy, and theory. Discussion In the previous section, we have outlined three different projects, each convergent in nature and transforming a particular segment of the pulse value chain. However, they are part of the same roadmap and, when weaved together, can transform the complete pulse ecosystem. We explain how this can occur below. Figure 3 captures the roadmap for ecosystem transformation as a layered approach. The effort begins with a deep understanding of individual and collective behavior and the forces that guide

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Figure 3. The roadmap for the transformation of the pulse ecosystem.

the choices made regarding food (production and consumption), nutrition, and health. This understanding is critical to introducing acceptable and sustainable behavioral change across societal actors,23–26 and is denoted by the red core in the figure. This deep understanding of the problem domain and its scope drives actors across society–– private enterprises, government agencies, communities, NGOs, media, and philanthropies–– to come together to create a CI platform. The collective goal of this platform is to simultaneously ensure food safety and security, equitable distribution of value, and a healthy and empowered population. This is denoted by the green ring surrounding the core. This platform, leveraging the spectrum of capabilities that reside among its members, undertakes projects that can substantially affect the ecosystem by redesigning the way various actors in society make choices and undertake activities, whether they are businesses, government agencies, communities, or individuals. Achieving this involves deploying a bundle of technological and other types of innova152

tions. This is depicted by the purple ring. While each individual project might focus on a subset of actors and activities in the ecosystem, when they are connected together, they hold the potential to transform the whole ecosystem, delivering convergent outcomes in a particular domain. Finally, the outermost ring represents the evaluation and learning from such efforts, including generalizable implications for theory, practice, and policy. It is well established that, in complex dynamic systems,27 information is key to transformation. Providing metrics and decision-support tools that inform CI partners of their individual and collective convergent outcomes and processes are critical to adaptive learning. This general framework can be quite usefully applied to the pulse roadmap. The genesis of the pulse roadmap lies in a deep understanding of the pattern of food innovation and consumption worldwide, one that has increasingly prioritized convenience and taste over nutrition and health.23 Juxtaposing this with the emergent healthcare challenges, the distinct health advantages afforded by pulses and

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the multiple issues plaguing the pulse value chain have created an impetus for a CI effort across the pulse value chain. The result was the sedimentation of a number of multi-actor, cross-sector CI platforms such as the PIP, the Odisha pilot team, and the actors involved in the MoPu initiative. Each of these platforms has unleashed projects that aspire to transform several aspects of the pulse value chain. The PIP, for instance, simultaneously addresses food technology, food marketing, and retailing and seeds the next generation of farm improvements. The MoPu initiative addresses farm improvement, food storage and distribution, food packaging and labeling, and food marketing. The Odisha pilot project encompasses farm improvement, food prescription, and preventive health care. Each project is collaborative, but the composition and nature of collaboration varies depending on the focus within the value chain (production vs. consumption) and the context in which it operates (resource rich vs. resource poor). Figure 4 maps the projects discussed above along these dimensions. It is important to note that these projects together are addressing the whole spectrum of issues in the pulse value chain across various contexts. Each project involves a small number of partners and focuses on improving a subset of the overall ecosystem. This modular approach keeps the complexity of CI at manageable levels and allows the validation of the CI concept itself. However, the projects are complementary and are contributing to the same overarching goal. When weaved together by coalescing the actors and activities across the projects, these projects hold the potential for a much larger impact. In other words, the projects collectively create a concrete roadmap for ecosystem transformation. We will now discuss how these projects can come together to transform the value chain, calling to attention the various actors who can facilitate such a transformation. The PIP provides a platform for developing innovative pulse-based food products and engages with companies of all sizes. PIP food innovators will range from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based in rural areas to large vertically integrated companies with an expansive supply and distribution network. These small, medium, and large food innovators may be connected to the emerging pulseproducing hubs, such as the smallholder farming communities being developed through the Odisha

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pilot or the MoPu initiative. Such a connection will not only provide an impetus to the rural economy and embed the smallholder farmers into industrial value chains, but it will also allow the food companies to work with the farming community to source the right variety and quality of pulses required. There is also an opportunity to integrate the nutrition and health facets from the Odisha pilot into the MoPu initiative, making a more complete transformation of the smallholder households. Linking these projects together will lead to economic prosperity for smallholder farmers through integration into mainstream economic activity; a reduction of transaction costs of value-chain actors and improvement in marketing efficiency; the decentralization of growth from urban to rural areas by the proliferation of a number of SMEs; and improvement in the health status of the population from behavioralchange cues and an array of healthy food choices in the form of pulse-based products. Implications for policy Creating the aforementioned linkages and scaling them up entails a new level of complexity and requires concerted effort from multiple actors in the ecosystem. First, it requires a supportive policy environment. Take, for instance, the amendment of the APMC Act in Maharashtra, India that opened up direct procurement from farmers. It played an important role in the success of the MoPu initiative. Such policy changes need to be universal if farmers are to get a fair share for the value they create. Furthermore, if agriculture, nutrition, and health have to be addressed together, multiple departments in the government need to work together. Consider a hypothetical policy framework where a farming household can sell a small part of their produce in exchange for coupons that can be used to secure a basket of nutritious commodities from the public distribution system or health checkups for the family from a primary healthcare center. This type of policy framework would be very beneficial to scale up the Odisha CI pilot and, in general, would be very supportive to realizing multidimensional outcomes. However, framing and implementing such policies would require cutting across departmental silos, very much along the lines of the whole-ofgovernment model outlined by Dub´e et al.28 Another goal for policy making is to creating incentives for firms to engage in healthy food

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Figure 4. The three roadmap projects.

innovations and/or create level-playing-field conditions that foster investment in nutritional improvement of food supply and demand. An example in this direction is the 2013 Companies Act in India that mandates all large companies spend 2% of their average net profit for the immediately preceding three financial years on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. More can be done to catalyze healthy food innovations. For example, a policy framework could allow SMEs that introduce healthy food products to receive tax benefits on their research and development spending. It could also take the form of challenge grants to catalyze healthy food innovations. Yet another objective for policy making is to provide incentives to consumers to procure nutritious products. This could be along the lines of the double-value coupon scheme that has been implemented in the United States in partnership with Wholesome Wave to encourage consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Such schemes could be adapted to encourage the consumption of pulses. Finally, from a policy perspective, CI can be scaled up to assemble partners in solution-oriented and project-specific consortia calls for institutional innovation that revisit the still prevalent top–down, state-centric model of policy making in favor of pluralistic, polycentric models of governance.28 Implications for firms In addition to the policy implications, scaling up CI also has implications for other ecosystem actors, such as NGOs and for-profit firms. NGOs will need to reset their dominant logic29 from one that seeks 154

to effectively employ philanthropic funds for social causes to one that actively seeks partnership with for-profit enterprises to create sustainable models for social good. By the same token, for-profit enterprises also need to change their dominant logic from one that looks at human development as a peripheral activity mandated through CSR to one that looks at employing the CSR funds toward human development in ways that will lead to strategic business development for the firm. An impact of a much bigger magnitude could be reached if food MNCs were to place nutrition and health front and center in core innovation portfolio and business practices for their own and other related businesses along the value chain. There could be high potential to improve food and nutrient access, affordability, and usability in combining agricultural innovation with the diverse types of technologies available for postfarm processing, product development, branding, retailing, or at any other lever points along the value chains. There is presently a huge gap in this regard that needs to be filled for agriculture to translate into nutrition. Beyond MNCs, there are other types of businesses whose competencies and resources could be harnessed in scaling up the human and economic outcomes of agriculture–nutrition linkages. First are commercial SMEs, from both developing and industrialized countries, and from both informal and formal sectors in developing countries. SMEs are the core fabric of local communities and the broader society around the world, constituting more than 95% of all businesses: in Canada, SMEs contribute 54.3%

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of the GDP and employ 63.7% of private-sector employees; in India they constitute close to 40% of the workforce and contribute 17% to the GDP. Second are social enterprises that are bringing business acumen to the service of human development, to take distance from the present social welfare/statecentric approach and build economic sustainability into interventions. The potential of commercial and social enterprises have not been fully tapped into yet in scaling up human and economic development impacts of agriculture–nutrition linkages. Implications for research The CI paradigm and projects open up several new streams of research. First, it takes collaboration to a new level bringing together cross-sectoral actors with different goals, competences, and strategies. This 21st century action research is likely to lead to important extension to the literature on collaboration and co-creation.16,30,31 Second, it takes innovation to a new level. The weaving together of technological innovation with other types of innovation for joint economic and human development will have implications for the antecedents, process, and consequences of innovation.32 The collaborative approach to joint optimization of economic, nutrition, and health outcomes will also lead to novel modeling and equilibrium conditions. References 1. Dub´e, L., et al. 2014. Convergent innovation for sustainable economic growth and affordable universal healthcare: foundations and early sketch of an innovation in the way we innovate. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1331: 119–141. 2. Reddy, A.A. 2009. Pulses production technology: status and way forward. Econ. Polit. Weekly 44: 73–80. 3. Leterme, P. 2002. Recommendations by health organizations for pulse consumption. Br. J. Nutr. 88: 239–242. 4. Jayalath, V.H., et al. 2014. Effect of dietary pulses on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials. Am. J. Hypertens. 27: 56–64. 5. McCrory, M.A., B.R. Hamaker, J.C. Lovejoy, et al. 2010. Pulse consumption, satiety, and weight management. Adv. Nutr. 1: 17–30. 6. Sievenpiper, J.L., et al. 2009. Effect of non-oil-seed pulses on glycaemic control: a systematic review and metaanalysis of randomised controlled experimental trials in people with and without diabetes. Diabetologia 52: 1479–1495. 7. Marinangeli, C.P.F. & P.J.H. Jones. 2011. Whole and fractionated yellow pea flours reduce fasting insulin and insulin resistance in hypercholesterolaemic and overweight human subjects. Br. J. Nutr. 105: 110–117. 8. Anderson, J.W. & A.W. Major. 2002. Pulses and lipaemia, short-and long-term effect: potential in the

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