Registration fees and other details are subject to change...
A.G. Kawamura
“California Agriculture: Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons for the Whole Country”
Registration Fee: $70
Room: TBD
A.G. Kawamura is a 3rd generation fruit and vegetable grower and shipper from Southern California. He is the former Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (2003-2010). He serves on several boards and committees including: Solutions From the Land, founding co-chair; Farm Foundation, Board and Roundtable Member; Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Advisory Committee member; Roots of Peace, Board Member; Western Growers Association, Board Member; CSU Agricultural Research Institute, Board Member; Southern California Water Committee Trustee; Orange County Farm Bureau, Board Member, Solutions For Urban Agriculture, founding chair. He is dedicated to the goal of ending hunger in our lifetime, and has worked in innovative ways to provide fresh produce to local food banks through his non-profit, Solutions For Urban Agriculture. Currently, and through his company, Orange County Produce, LLC, he is engaged in building an exciting, interactive 21st century agricultural solution showcase at the OC Great Park in Irvine, CA
Uma Lele
“Women and Structural Transformation”
Registration Fee: $70
Room: TBD
Uma Lele was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Applied Economics by Cornell University, at age 24. She has decades of experience in research, operations, policy analysis, and evaluation. A significant part of her experience was acquired in developing regions, from a base at the World Bank, as well as in US universities and other international organizations. Currently she is affiliated with the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, India. In 2018 she was elected president-elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and on August 31, 2021, she became its President. The first woman to be elected to this position in IAAE’s 92-year history, she was responsible for planning the first, all virtual 31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists held during August 17 and August 31, 2021.
Her most recent co-authored book, Food for All: International Organizations and the Transformation of Agriculture, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2021. She served on the Science Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. She has published extensively on agriculture and rural development, including independent evaluation reports from the World Bank. She has contributed well over 130 book chapters, papers, articles, and other writings on food and agriculture, the environment, public health, science and technology, aid and finance, and evaluation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 2016, she co-chaired an inter-agency Food Security Information Network (FSIN) report with Professor William Masters on Measuring Food and Nutrition Security, and in 2000–2002, she co-chaired (with Professor Shen Gao Fang of the Chinese Academy of Engineering) the Task Force on Forests and Grasslands in the Development of the West, commissioned by the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).
Her honors include: Fellow of India’s National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS); American Agricultural & Applied Economic Association (AAEA, 1999); a Distinguished Alumnus of Cornell University (2008); Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE 2017); “Honorary Life Member” of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE); B. P. Pal Award (2015–2016) of India’s National Academy of Agricultural Sciences; the M. S. Swaminathan Award of the Trust for the Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, India (2017); the Clifton Wharton Award (Emerging Markets Program, Cornell University, 2018); Honorary Fellow by the African Association of Agricultural Economists in 2019; and an honorary Doctor of Agricultural Sciences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, as “the leading rural development scholar of her generation.”
She has established three Mentorship Programs at the Agricultural & Applied Economic Association (AAEA) for students from developing countries, and an award for Best Research on Gender at the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). At the IAEA, she is actively promoting women in the agricultural economics profession and expanding opportunities for their professional advancement.