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Bina Agarwal, Honorary Fellow and Economics alumna, was co-recipient of the first Global Inequality Research Award for “groundbreaking work in the field of social and environmental inequalities” at a ceremony held at the Paris School of Economics in March 2025.  This biennial award, established by the Paris School of Economics and Sciences Po, France, was presented to her by Professor Thomas Piketty who writes on global inequality and founded the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School. Bina was also gifted a replica of the first ancient school tablets found in Šuš, Mesopotamia. 

During the ceremony, Bina gave a lecture: ‘Hidden inequalities, visible outcomes. A Gender Lens’, which is available to . The lecture was part of the series organised by the World Inequality Lab. Bina is now converting the talk into a paper.

We were fortunate enough to be able to ask Bina about winning the prize and find out a bit more about her current research.

What did it mean to win the first Global Inequality Research Award from France?

I was of course delighted to have my work on gender inequality in property ownership and on environmental governance recognised by two major institutions in France. At the same time, I was also surprised to be selected for this inaugural prize, since there are many scholars globally who have done excellent research on different aspects of inequality.

I might add that, for me, it is not only important to identify and measure inequality in its complex dimensions, but also to suggest ways of reducing it. This is not easy, especially with gender inequality which has both visible and hidden dimensions, such as biased social norms and perceptions.  These are not always amenable to change.

Can you tell us more about your research on group farming?

I have worked on agricultural sustainability for many years. And today, a major barrier to sustainable agriculture is the resource constraint that smallholders face. Some 84% of farms across 111 countries cultivate under 2 hectares. Most of these farms are too small and resource constrained to be economically or environmentally viable. Also, women in small family farms typically work as unpaid labour and are viewed as farm wives rather than farmers in their own right. We thus need an alternative model of farming.

I have been researching whether group farming could provide such an alternative, wherein smallholders voluntarily pool land, labour and capital to create larger farms that they manage cooperatively?  This could potentially lead to economies of scale, save on labour and input costs, and enhance bargaining power in markets and with governments. I was able test this empirically, since I discovered many current examples of group farming, especially in India and France.

In Kerala, India, for instance, today there are about 73,000 all-women group farms. Here 4-6 poor rural women per group pool leased-in or owned land to cultivate together.  I compared the relative performance of a sample of group and individual farms, based on detailed primary data that I collected, and found that women’s group farms were significantly more productive and profitable than the largely male-managed individual farms. Working together also empowered women socially and politically – many had won seats in village council elections. France, too, has a long tradition of group farming, although here it is largely men who constitute the groups.

In my book I am exploring this theme historically and globally, with examples both from democratic countries and former socialist countries, to extract lessons and design principles for successful replication elsewhere. My writings have already led some NGOs in various parts of India to experiment with group farming. I am hoping the book will help extend the model to other countries facing similar constraints.

Professor Bina Agarwal

Bina is currently Professor of Development Economics and Environment, GDI, The University of Manchester. She is also affiliated to the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, of which she was earlier the Director. Her prolific career has produced major work on gender inequalities in property, especially land, environmental governance, inheritance law, and agrarian change.  Among her notable books are the award-winning ‘ (CUP 1994); (OUP, 2010); and (OUP, 2016), a three-volume compendium of her selected papers.

Read Bina’s full profile here