A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at 12:30pm at the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C.

RSVP for the Celebration of Life.

On 28 July 2025, we lost a pioneer, mentor, colleague, and friend. Uma Lele was a legend – a brilliant researcher and an influential leader in the world of Agricultural and Development Economics. Her outstanding body of research advanced our understanding of the complex interactions among agricultural policy, agricultural growth, equity, environment, and gender, and how they collectively shape patterns of development. Uma has also made important contributions in understanding the roles of international finance, multilateral organizations, and policy advice in the processes of growth and distribution in developing countries –particularly in Africa and Asia. With her insights on rural development issues in the Global South, she is widely regarded as an authority on the subject. Beyond her enormous scholarly contributions, she was a visionary, a mentor, and a builder of institutional  and individual capacity.

Born and brought up in Maharashtra, India, Uma charted an extraordinary path to become a global leader in the field. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, achieving this distinction at the young age of 24.  She joined the World Bank in 1971, and had an illustrious career at the Bank, in academia, and international organizations. She made history as the first woman to be elected President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) in 2018 and served as president of IAAE from 2021-2024. Uma Lele was also recognized as Fellow of the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE), and received numerous other prestigious awards, including the B.P. Pal Award (2015-2017), the M.S. Swaminathan Award (2017), the Clifton Wharton Award (2018), and an honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch University (2023). Uma loved India and played an instrumental role in bringing the International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) to India in 2024.

Her contribution to economics has been exceptional, and opened new paths of research. She has authored about 18 books and 130 research articles. Uma was known for her strong voice and courage to express her views even when they challenged prevailing thinking. Her early work on agricultural market behavior in South Asia was published as Food Grain Marketing in India: Private Performance and Public Policy.  Her landmark study on evaluation of rural development programs in Africa culminated in her best-selling book The Design of Rural Development: Lessons From Africa, which significantly shaped debates on these issues at the World Bank, and led to important shifts in the Bank policy towards making such programs effective. Her work on the effectiveness of aid resulted in two influential books including Aid to African Agriculture: Lessons of Two Decades of Donor Experience published by Johns Hopkins University in 1992.

Uma Lele’s empirical analyses informed the World Bank’s Forest Strategy (2002) and strengthened CGIAR’s approach to agricultural research and food security. Her recommendation to replace banning of logging with incentives  of payment of environmental services was successfully implemented in China. In her most recent book Food For All she examined the role of five international organizations – WB/IDA, FAO, WFP, CGIAR, and IFAD – on agricultural transformation across 130 countries. She concluded that there continues to be huge under-investment in agriculture and rural development in low- and middle-income countries. In 2020, she wrote an article on COVID-19 challenges faced by the Indian labor force. A hallmark of her research work in Africa and other places have been in-depth case studies demonstrating how high-quality research is possible even in data-constrained environments.

Uma was a passionate advocate for women's empowerment. She established an award for the Best Research on Gender in Agriculture at IAAE in 2011, launched the Uma Lele Mentorship Program to support students from developing countries at the AAEA in 2013. In 2018, she founded the International Committee of Women in Agricultural Economics (ICWAE) with a mission to provide mentorship and career advancement support for women in the profession. As a part of this effort she mobilized a grant from the Gates Foundation for mentoring women agricultural economists from the Global South. Uma initiated studies documenting the status of women in the agricultural economics profession in several developing countries. Three such studies from India, China, and Kenya were published in the flagship journal of the IAAE, Agricultural Economics. She was a tireless advocate for more effective public, social, and policy support for women in development everywhere. She mentored and inspired countless women, creating opportunities for them to grow, lead, and thrive.

Uma was a trailblazer who shattered many glass ceilings. Yet, she was warm and accessible to all. Her passing is a real loss for the IAAE and the profession. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her son Abhijeet and members of her family. Her legacy lives on through the many lives she touched, the knowledge she generated, and the institutions she helped shape. From all of us the world over who were fortunate enough to know and work with her, a heartfelt thank you, Uma. May her visionary contributions and generosity to the profession, as well as her steadfast dedication to improving the opportunities of women everywhere, continue to inspire generations to come!

Board of Directors

International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE)

32^nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE 2024)

2-7 August 2024, New Delhi, India

“Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems”

Announcement:

The IAAE will hold its next triennial conference, the 32^nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE), from 2-7 August 2024 in New Delhi, India. After the previous ICAE in 2021 had to be held virtually due to the COVID pandemic, we are all looking forward to ICAE 2024, which will be an in-person event, featuring the best that our international profession has to offer.

Conference Theme:

Current agri-food systems are not sustainable. Chronic hunger and undernutrition remain stubbornly high and have increased recently due to several overlapping crises. Paradoxically, many of those unable to afford healthy diets are smallholder farmers. At the same time, overweight, obesity, and related chronic diseases are rising. Malnutrition in its various forms accounts for a large proportion of the global burden of disease. Beyond human health issues, agri-food systems are major contributors to serious environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource degradation. Profound system transformations are required everywhere – in low-, middle-, and high-income countries – such that agri-food systems can contribute more effectively to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the urgent need for transformation is widely acknowledged, many open questions remain.

ICAE 2024 has “Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems” as its overall theme, with a particular focus on the important role that the agricultural economics profession will need to play in addressing related interdisciplinary knowledge gaps and policy challenges.

Conference Procedure:

ICAE 2024 will feature invited and contributed papers and sessions on topics such as healthy and sustainable diets, technological and institutional innovations, agroecology, gender roles and social equity in agri-food systems, environmental and social externalities of value chains, the true cost of food, development of a sustainable bioeconomy, and novel approaches and methods in agri-food systems research and policy analysis, among others.

The main conference will start in the morning of Saturday, 3 August 2024. Exciting Pre-conference workshops will be held on Friday, 2 August 2024. ICAE 2024 will provide unique academic and cultural experiences, including fascinating research and policy sessions, breathtaking sightseeing tours in Delhi and surroundings, social events, and opportunities for post-conference tours.

Speakers and Call for Contributions:

Many top-notch speakers from all parts of the world have already confirmed their active participation at ICAE 2024 in New Delhi as plenary speakers or invited panelists. For a list of speakers see the ICAE 2024 website at: http://icae2024.in/home/.

IAAE invites submissions of the following contributions to ICAE 2024:

• Contributed papers (full paper)
• Contributed posters (extended abstract)
• Organized symposia (symposium overview)
• Pre-conference workshops (workshop overview)

All submissions that relate to the conference theme are welcome and encouraged. Submission guidelines and the link to the submission system can be found on the ICAE 2024 website at: http://icae2024.in. The deadline for all submissions is 15 January 2024 (11:59 pm GMT). All submissions will be peer-reviewed. Submitters will be informed about the outcome of the peer-review process by 31 March 2024.

Prizes:

Contributed paper submitters can apply for the “Uma Lele Prize for Best Contributed Paper on Gender” and/or the “T.W. Schultz Prize for Best Contributed Paper by a Young Scholar (below 40 years of age)”. Contributed poster submitters can apply for the “Nils Westermarck Prize for Best Poster by a Young Scholar (below 40 years of age)”. In addition, IAAE invites submissions for the 2024 Carl K. Eicher Award for the best dissertation on agricultural economics problems in Africa (see http://icae2024.in for details). These prizes will be awarded at ICAE 2024.

Financial Support:

Conference delegates will have to bear their own travel costs and conference registration fees. However, IAAE will support qualifying junior scholars from the Global South with accepted academic contributions (papers, posters, symposia, etc.) through travel stipends. These stipends will be allocated in a competitive process. Applications for travel stipends will be possible after the peer-review of submissions is completed.

Conference Organization:

ICAE 2024 is organized by IAAE jointly with the Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and the International Food Policy Research Institute.

We hope to receive many great submissions and look forward to an exciting ICAE 2024 in New Delhi.

Matin Qaim
IAAE President-Elect
Chair of ICAE 2024 Program Committee
On Behalf of the IAAE and the Indian Local Organizing Committee

"Can information drive demand for safer food? Impact of brand-specific recommendations and test results on product choice" 53(3): 454-467

By Sarah Wairimu Kariuki and Vivian Hoffmann

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EDITORS, SEPTEMBER 2022

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This Annual Report covers the operations of Agricultural Economics from July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022. Highlights include:

• The number of submitted manuscripts increased significantly last year, with 659 new submissions and 104 resubmissions, for a total inflow of 823 manuscripts. This compares with 784 new submissions and 138 resubmissions in 2020-2021.

• The number of papers ultimately accepted was 78 in the past year, much lower than the 89 in 2020-2021, but significantly lower than the 108 in 2019-2020. The much higher number of articles in 2019-2020 was due to the special issue that published the plenary papers from the ICAE conference in Vancouver. The one-year rejection rate (based on 606 rejections and 823 new, pending and resubmitted manuscripts) was 73.6% of all submissions, slightly higher than the 74% from the previous year. About 11.5% of initial submissions were returned for revision (a bit lower than the percentage of last year’s 14%); some of those papers are eventually rejected and others are subsequently accepted. Based on 823 papers submitted or resubmitted, and 78 papers accepted, the annual acceptance rate stood at 9.4%, a bit higher than the 9.1% from the previous year, but lower than the 11.4% from 2019-2020.

• Strong competition for acceptance in the journal requires that we turn away a large number of high-quality manuscripts in order to maintain reasonably quick throughput and a modest journal backlog.

• We called on a large number of referees during the year, receiving reports from a total of 410 reviewers representing 40 countries.

• The average speed of throughput remained similar to last year. A small number of papers remain in backlog with authors or referees and it remains an editorial goal to keep backlog to a minimum. In line with a shift that began in previous years, and a strategy discussed in past years with the IAAE executive committee, the editorial office continued to rely heavily on “desk rejections.” Last year 65% of manuscripts were summarily rejected without being sent to reviewers. On average, summary rejections occurred 6 days after submission (virtually same, on average, as last year’s 6 days and the previous year’s 5 days), consistent with the management strategy of issuing such decisions within one week of submission. Rejections (after outside review) were rendered in an average of 109 days, same as last year. Invitations to revise and resubmit following first review

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were rendered in an average of 177 days (versus 150 days last year), and ultimate acceptances required a total of 316 days (slight increase compared to 313 days last year).

• In June 2022 the ISI 2021 Impact Factors were released. The one-year Impact Factor for Agricultural Economics increased from 2.58 in 2021 to 3.887 in 2022—a 50% increase, and the ranking remained 9th on the list of 21 journals in the Agricultural Economics and Policy category. In terms of overall citations, we ranked third with 5,526 total citations during the period.

• This is the seventh annual report presented by Awudu Abdulai and Ashok Mishra as Co-Editors.

• The 2021 “Best Paper” award, our fourteenth, goes to Quanbiao Shang, Teresa Serra, Philip Garcia, and Mindy Mallory for their paper on “Looking Under the Surface: An Analysis of Iceberg Orders in the U.S. Agricultural Futures Markets.”

We are grateful for the opportunity to have served the IAAE as editors of the journal in the past year, and appreciate the continued support provided by the IAAE Executive Board, our Associate Editors and the Advisory Board. On behalf of the journal and the association, we offer our sincere thanks to all of the authors and reviewers whose hard work resulted in another successful year for Agricultural Economics.

2022 Annual Report

However, we received the following advisory from Julie and Linda.

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Inclusion of a conference paper in AgEcon Search is not considered publication. It honors the long-time tradition of economists producing working papers and conference papers on a project prior to any journal article submissions.

IAAE's journal, Agricultural Economics, is a good example of how economics journals view working papers and conference papers. In the policy on Wiley's Web site, it states that “the version of a paper that is initially submitted to the journal (which may be similar to earlier working papers and conference papers) may be put on the author's Web site, their institutional Web site, or "not for profit subject-based preprint servers or repositories".

Once in a great while, we encounter an author who is submitting to an ecological or other life sciences journal whose editors are not accustomed to the publication habits of economists but we can often help them to understand the situation. We are always happy to assist authors as they work with editors on these issues.

AAEA requires submission of conference papers to AgEcon Search and has done so since 1998 with no great harm coming to their authors.

Beyond their concerns about future publications, AgEcon Search provides great exposure for their work. All papers are automatically added to RePEc and receive high rankings in Google and Google Scholar. The 781 papers from the 2018 IAAE meeting in Vancouver were downloaded over 140,000 times in the last 12 months.

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We will be happy to hear your thoughts, and please let us know if we can provide further clarity.