Skip to main content
Prabhu Pingali

Prabhu Pingali

  • Professor
  • Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition

Download Vita

Faculty Area

Interdisciplinary Theme

Faculty Expertise

  • International and Development Economics and Policy

Contact

Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

607.255.2352

plp39@cornell.edu

Cornell Directory Entry

Website

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.

Selected Publications

Awards and Honors

  • 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

Recent Courses

  • AEM 4880/ANSC 6880/AEM 6880/ANSC 4880/CEE 5820/FDSC 4880/CHEME 4880/CHEME 6780/FDSC 6880 - Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus – Engage the US, China, and India for Sustainable Future
  • AEM 4450/AEM 6455/GDEV 4450/NS 6455/GDEV 6455/NS 4450 - Toward a Sustainable Global Food System: Food Policy for Developing Countries

Academic Degrees

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

In the News