Released on = May 11, 2007, 5:57 am

Press Release Author = Prof BR Natarajan

Industry = Agriculture

Press Release Summary = Honor is for what you give and election to the Academy is
universally considered as one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a
scientist or engineer.


Press Release Body = The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) signed into being by
President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863 at the height of the Civil War, is an
honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering
research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use
for the general welfare. Members and foreign associates of the Academy are elected
in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original
research.

Pingali Prabhu L presently Director, Agricultural and Development Economics
Division, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome,
Italy is an Indian national who has devoted his entire career to agriculture in
developing countries, living and working in all three developing continents Asia,
Africa and Latin America. His research and advisory work has focused on
technological change, environmental externalities, and agricultural development
policy.

He has published prolifically, authoring (or co-authoring) 9 books and 90 journal
articles and book chapters. One of his most significant works was to quantify the
human and environmental costs of pesticide use, for which he received multiple
international awards.

Pingali has been the Past-President of the International Association of Agricultural
Economists (IAAE). In 2006, he was elected Fellow of the American Agricultural
Economics Association and was appointed to the U.S. National Academies Round Table
on Sustainability. He has co-chaired the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Panel\'s
working group on Future Scenarios. He was Director of the Economics Program at
CIMMYT, Mexico from 1996-2002. Prior to joining CIMMYT, he worked at the
International Rice Research Institute at Los Baños, Philippines from 1987 to 1996 as
an Agricultural Economist, and prior to that at the World Bank\'s Agriculture and
Rural Development Department from 1982-1987 as an economist. He was a visiting
scholar at Stanford University, Food Research Institute, and an Affiliate professor
at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.

Prabhu Pingali obtained Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in
1982 and prior to that in 1977 he obtained his Masters Degree in Economics from BITS
Pilani. Today he is one among the 18 foreign associates inducted into the National
Academy of Sciences in May 2007.

This proud alumnus of BITS Pilani who has brought pride to his alma mater and
country says Poverty is a cause of hunger, but it is equally true that hungry people
will always be poor. Hungry people cannot take full advantage of a pro-poor
development strategy because hunger negatively affects health, labour productivity,
and investment choices, perpetuating poverty. Investment in hunger reduction is too
often seen as \"welfare\" whereas, in practice, it is an investment with a potential
for generating high economic rates of return.

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani is a Leading University in
India today offering degrees in Engineering, Management, Economics, Pharmacy,
Sciences, Engineering Technology, Information Systems, General Studies, Finance, etc
presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa campuses and in the near future at Hyderabad campus.
BITS Pilani also offers an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a
vast spectrum of Indian corporates.

Web Site = http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in

Contact Details = Prof BR Natarajan
Dean Work Integrated Learning Programmes
BITS Pilani (Rajasthan) 333031 India
Phone office 91-1596-242210
Email: brnt@bits-pilani.ac.in