CAES Newswire

 College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences UGA Cooperative Extension
Menu
Published on 03/26/15

UGA's International Agriculture Day speaker to discuss persistent malnutrition

By Denise Horton

Prabhu Pingali, director of the Tata-Cornell University Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition, will speak April 7 at 4 p.m. in the Georgia Museum of Art as part of this year’s International Agriculture Day on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.

Sponsored by the UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the day will include Pingali's on “Addressing Persistent Malnutrition in the Developing World—Getting Beyond the Focus on Increasing the Pile of Food Grains.”

The world has the means to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, Pingali said, but accomplishing this task requires convincing international policymaking groups to focus their energies on that common goal.

Pingali will discuss a range of topics related to agriculture and nutrition. In a recent interview published by Creating Chemistry magazine, Pingali said a disconnect occurred during the original Green Revolution, when there was a focus on increasing the production of staple grains, such as rice, maize and wheat.

“There was very little understanding at that time of the overall food system and of the importance of building up a diversity of food available to consumers,” he said. “That’s been the big change over the last three decades: moving away from this focus on staples to looking more broadly at the food system from farm to plate.”

Pingali was named director of the Tata-Cornell initiative soon after it was established in 2013 with a $25 million endowment from the India-based Tata Education and Development Trust. The goal of the initiative is to solve the problems of poverty, malnutrition and rural development in India.

Prior to joining the initiative, Pingali spent five years as deputy director of agriculture development for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He began his career as an economist with the World Bank in 1982, followed by stints as an agricultural economist at the International Rice Research Institute, director of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In addition to Pingali’s talk, the event will include presentation of the CAES Undergraduate Global Citizen Award, the Edward T. and Karen Kanemasu Global Engagement Award and the Global Programs Graduate International Travel Award.

Attendees will vote for their favorite of the five finalists in this year’s Agriculture Abroad Student Photo Contest. The winners will be announced at the end of the reception.

For more information on International Agriculture Day and the Office of Global Programs, see http://www.global.uga.edu/internationalagricultureday .

Experts/Sources:
Victoria Collins McMaken
Prabhu Pingali will present at this year's International Ag Day. The event will also include the presentation of CAES Undergraduate Global Citizen Award, the Edward T. and Karen Kanemasu Global Engagement Award and the Global Programs Graduate International Travel Award.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Download Image
From left, CAES Associate Professor Abigail Borron and Fulbright Romanian-American Foundation Scholars Mihai Suteu, Daniyar Memedemin, Alina Zaharia, Andreea Ona and Daniel Chiciudean stand in front of an image of the Romanian flag projected onto a barn at UGArden. CAES News
Fulbright Scholars unite with UGA Extension to envision ag outreach model in Romania 12/18/24 Maria M. Lameiras
Arriving on the Athens campus of the University of Georgia in August 2023, five Romanian scholars experienced the same anticipation, excitement and apprehension as many first-year students.  Chosen as Fulbright Romanian-American Foundation Scholars, each serves on the faculty at one of three Romanian universities, specializing in fields from economics and engineering to plant breeding and biotechnology. The five scholars comprised the first cohort of the Romanian Extension Education Development Program, an ambitious three-year pilot effort to facilitate planning and implementation of extension services in Romania. 
Georgia Simmons at the office of U.S. Sen. Warnock CAES News
Georgia 4-H alum, CAES student spends semester serving at the nation's Capitol 12/03/24 Josie Smith, Cooper Hardy
Third-year University of Georgia student and Banks County 4-H alum Georgia Simmons has been in the center of the political action this fall with the Georgia 4-H Washington DC Intern Program. Simmons, an environmental resource science major in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, works in the office of U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. As an intern on his staff, she interacts directly with policy experts and lawmakers, participating in the legislative process while earning a semester of credit hours.
southgeorgiafarmfield (1) CAES News
CAES releases 20 years of farm gate trends 08/19/24 Jordan Powers
For more than two decades, the Georgia Farm Gate Value Report has offered a comprehensive analysis of the county-level production value for commodities in Georgia’s No. 1 industry, agriculture. The reports provide essential data to farmers in the state’s 159 counties. Now the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is providing Georgia’s producers with a new tool, the Georgia Farm Gate Value 20-Year Trends.
web Capitol Day Group Photo on Oglethorpe Stairs CAES News
4-H’ers see leadership in action during Georgia 4-H Day at the Capitol 02/28/24 Josie Smith
The gold dome of the Georgia Capitol was complemented with shades of green on Feb. 14 as 4-H youth and adult leaders joined elected officials for the largest Georgia 4-H Day at the Capitol on record. With nearly 700 in attendance, outstanding 4-H’ers from counties across the state gathered to engage with legislators, observe leadership in action and learn about the civic process.
GaCapitol CAES News
Across the Southern border: The future of the H-2A visa program in Georgia 01/17/24 Emily Cabrera
As an essential part of the U.S. agricultural industry, the H-2A program offers a lifeline for farmers facing seasonal labor shortages. The program enables them to hire migrant workers on a temporary basis when attempts to hire domestic workers are unsuccessful. Yet, as the agricultural sector navigates the delicate balance between productivity and financial viability, the high costs associated with the H-2A program present a very real and present challenge for farmers striving to sustain their operations.
service pnp fsa 8d29000 8d29100 8d29114v CAES News
Across the Southern border: How U.S. immigration policies affect agriculture 01/04/24 Emily Cabrera
For decades, economists have studied the impact of immigration on domestic labor markets. As a shortage of domestic farm labor has led to increased participation in the H-2A visa program, a brief look back at past immigration policies helps frame why migrants from Central and South America have largely been associated with filling necessary agricultural jobs in the U.S.