Prabhu Pingali (on leave)

Biography

Prabhu Pingali is a professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, with an appointment in the Department of Global Development (CALS). He is the founding director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). Prior to joining Cornell, he was deputy director for the Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2008 through May 2013. Previous to that, he was director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Agriculture and Development Economics Division from 2002-2007.

In addition, he worked with the CGIAR for 15 years from 1987 to 2002, first with IRRI in the Philippines and then with CIMMYT in Mexico. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association. He has also served as chair of the Governing Board of ICRISAT.

Pingali has over four decades of experience as an academic researcher and development practitioner focused on addressing the problems of global hunger, poverty and environmental sustainability. He has written 14 books and over 200 refereed journal articles and book chapters on agriculture and food policy. His work has been cited approximately 30,000 times in academic literature and has influenced national food and agricultural policy and donor funding of several developing nations, including India. His latest book, “Transforming food systems for a rising India”, has been downloaded 150 thousand times and has been very influential in India’s food and agriculture community.

Education

PhD North Carolina State University at Raleigh, 1982
MA Birla Institute of Technology and Science, 1977

Research

• Rahman, Andaleeb; Pingali, Prabhu. The Future of India’s Social Safety Nets: Focus, Form, and ScopePalgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Ed. Christopher Barrett. Palgrave MacMillan. (2024): 439pp
• Seth, Payal; Pingali, Prabhu. "Addressing information and credit barriers to making India open defecation free and improving child health: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial in rural India"PLoS ONE. 20.2 (2025): e0318198
• Seth, Payal; Chandran, Bharath; Mittra, Bhaskar; Pingali, Prabhu. "Understanding the Determinants of Farmers’ Adoption of Artificial Insemination in Livestock: A Systematic Review"Economic and Political Weekly. 60.7 (2025): 68-80
• Nuthalapati, Chandra; Mishra, Ashok; Pingali, Prabhu; Reardon, Thomas. "Determinants and Income Effects of Small Farmers Selling to Supermarkets versus Traditional Market Channels in Four Regions of India"Economic and Political Weekly. 59.44-45 (2024): 60-67
• Urban Cordeiro, Emily; Samaddar, Arindam; Munshi, Sugandha; Ajay, Anurag; Rossiter, David; et al. "Transitions to crop residue burning have multiple antecedents in Eastern India"Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 44.59 (2024)
• Gupta, Soumya; Seth, Payal; Vemireddy, Vidya; Pingali, Prabhu. "Women’s empowerment and intra-household diet diversity across the urban continuum: Evidence from India’s DHS"Food Policy. 128 (2024): 102680
• Puri, Raghav; Pingali, Prabhu. "Reducing the true cost of food-based safety nets: evidence from India's subsidized food program"Environmental Research Letters. 19.6 (2024): 064041
• Payal, Seth; Gupta, Soumya; Pingali, Prabhu. "Did the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown reverse the nutritional gains in children? Evidence from primary panel data in rural India"Economic and Political Weekly. 59.5 (2024)
• Sunder, Naveen; Gupta, Soumya; Pingali, Prabhu. "Leveraging men’s education as an effective pathway for improving diet quality: Evidence from rural India"PLoS ONE. 18.11 (2023): e0283935
• Nuthalapati, Chandra; Zilberman, David; Qaim, Matin; Pingali, Prabhu. "Hybrid Mustard and Biotechnology: Pathways for Doubling Farmers’ Incomes and Nutritional Security"Economic and Political Weekly. 58.43 (2023): 47-54

Awards

• Outstanding Alumnus (2018) Birla Institute of Technology and Science - Rajasthan, India
• Outstanding Alumnus (2010) North Carolina State University
• Member (2007) U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• Outstanding Publication Award shared with A.C. Rola for "Pesticides, Rice Productivity, and Farmers' Health: An Economic Assessment" (1997) Philippine National Academy of Sciences and Technology
• M.S. Swaminathan Award for Social Science Research and Development for the book "Pesticides, Rice Productivity and Farmers' Health: An Economic Assessment" (1993) M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation