Prabhu L. Pingali

Prabhu Pingali is the Deputy Director of Agriculture Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a role he has held since June 2008. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division at the FAO from September 2002 until 2008. He also served as the Director of the Economics Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) from 1996 until 2002, a Program Leader and Agricultural Economist at the International Rice Research Institute from 1991 until 1996, and an economist at the World Bank's Agriculture and Rural Development Department from 1982 to 1987. He earned his Masters in economics at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 1977 and his PhD in Economics at North Carolina State University in 1982.

"Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Associate in May 2007, and he was elected Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association in 2006. Pingali was the President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 2003-06.

"Pingali has over twenty five years of experience in assessing the extent and impact of technical change in agriculture in developing countries, including Asia, Africa and Latin America... He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Food Research Institute, and an Affiliate professor at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.

"Prabhu Pingali has authored nine books and over one hundred referred journal articles and book chapters on technological change, productivity growth and resource management issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has received several international awards for his work, including two from the American Agricultural Economics Association: Quality of Research Discovery Award in 1988 and Outstanding Journal Article of the Year (Honorable Mention) in 1995.

• Panel, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Select Publications

Agriculture Development & Food Security:

• Mette Wik, Prabhu Pingali & Sumiter Broca, "Global Agricultural Performance: past trends and future prospects," Background paper to the World Development Report 2008.
• Presidential Address, International Conference of Agricultural Economists, Brisbane, Australia, August 2007.
• "Rural Nonfarm Employment in Developing Countries in an era of Globalization."
• "Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty: towards a coherent policy agenda," Paper presented at the OECD Global Fourm, Paris, December 2006.
• Prabhu Pingali, Luca Alinovi and Jacky Sutton, "Food security in complex emergencies: enhancing food system resilience," DISASTERS: Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management, Volume 29 Supplement 1, S5-S24, 2005.
• Prahbu L. Pingali and Randy Stringer, 2004, "Food Security and Agriculture in the Low Income Food Deficit Countries: 10 years after the Uruguay Round." In: Giovanni Anania, Mary E. Bohman, Colin Carter and Alex F. McCalla (eds) Agricultural policy reform and the WTO, where are we heading? Edgar Elgar Publishing.
• "Sustaining food security in developing world: the top five policy challenges," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, 2003. Vol 42, No. 3, 261-272.

Bio-technology: from the Green to the Gene Revolution:

• Terri Raney and Prabhu Pingali, "Sowing a Gene Revolution," Scientific American, September 2007.
• Prabhu Pingali and Terri Raney, "Asian agricultural development: From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution." In Agriculture and Rural Development in Asia: Proceedings of an International Conference. Balisacan, A. and Fuwa, N. (eds.), SEARCA and ISEAS, 2007.
• Raney,Terri and Prabhu Pingali 2005. "Private Research and Public Goods: Implications of biotechnology for biodiversity." In: Agricultural biodiversity, biotechnology and development -- economic issues in crop genetic resource management J. Cooper, D. Zilberman and L. Lipper editors. Natural Resource Management and Policy book series Kluwer Publishers.
• Prabhu Pingali and Terri Raney 2005. "Globalization and agricultural biotechnology research: Implications for developing countries." In: Tuberosa R., Phillips R.L., Gale M. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Congress “In the wake of the Double Helix: from the Green to the Gene Revolution”, 27-31 May 2003, Bologna, Italy, pages 635-654.
• Pingali, P.L, and Greg Traxler. 2002. "Changing Locus of Agricultural Research: will the poor benefit from biotechnology and privatization trends?," Food Policy (2002)

Contact Information

• Web: http://sites.google.com/site/prabhupingali/
• Twitter: @prabhupingali

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• FAO
• International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
• International Rice Research Institute
• World Bank
• Monsanto's Use of Humanitarian Projects to Open Global Markets to GMOs

External Resources

• Prabhu Pingali, FAO
• Prabhu L. Pingali, Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
• Prabhu Pingali, BioVision 07, YouTube.
• Prabhu Pingali, National Academies of Science, Board of Science, Technology, and Economic Policy.

External Articles

• Luis Montero, "Voices From the Foundation: Prabhu Pingali on Food for 7 Billion and Beyond," October 11, 2011.