Pingali has been appointed director of the Tata-Cornell Initiative in Agriculture and Nutrition (TACO-AN), a long-term project established through a USD 25 million endowment from the Tata Trusts, chaired by Ratan Tata.
His tenure will begin on June 1.
Pingali will oversee a research, development and education programme focused on the design and evaluation of innovative interventions that link agriculture, food systems and human nutrition, including the impacts of nutrition and agriculture policies on poverty and nutritional status, the Cornell University said in a statement.
"TACO-AN can play an important leadership role both in research and policy advocacy," he said.
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"Pingali's broad experience as a scholar, statesman and practitioner will propel the programme forward and further enhance Cornell's status as land-grant university to the world," Cornell President David J Skorton said.
The goal of the initiative is to reduce poverty and malnutrition in rural India while protecting environmental, economic and human health, said Alice Pell, vice provost for international relations.
"There is substantial evidence that failures of food systems are both the cause and consequence of persistent poverty," Pell said.
"Until communities and countries make scientific and institutional advances to meet nutritional needs reliably through improved production, processing and functional markets, improvements in economic and physical health will be hampered," he said.
Research conducted at the center will draw from the cross-disciplinary expertise found across Cornell, according to Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.