Obituary
Uma Lele
1941-2025
Source: IAAE Website
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!