Uphoff, Norman Thomas

Prof Emeritus

research

research and scholarship focus

  • Rural Local Organization and Institutional Development
  • Participatory Development
  • NGOs, Social Capital, Civil Society and Empowerment
  • Irrigation Management
  • Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Development
  • The System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
  • Agroecology, Ecoagriculture and Sustainable Agriculture
  • Development Strategy and Policy 􀂉 Food Security, Poverty and Environmental Issues
  • Development Administration
  • Comparative and Developmental Politics
  • Development Cooperation and Assistance
  • Policy Analysis
  • African Politics
  • International Studies

research areas

international geographic focus

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

teaching

teaching focus

  • Comparative politics
  • Third-World development
  • local institutions and participation
  • South Asia
  • political economy
  • development administration
  • Public policy
  • sustainable development

service

current professional activities

University Responsibilities

  • Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD): Director, 1990-2005, now emeritus; Program Leader, Sustainable Rice Systems, 2000 to present.
  • Center for International Studies: chair of Rural Development Committee, 1971-1978, 1979-1985, 1986-1990; director, South Asia Program, 1988-1990; co-director, Joint Cornell-Syracuse National Resource Center on South Asia, 1988-1990; chair, International Development Studies Committee, 1990-1991.
  • College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Director, International Agriculture Program, 1990-2001; Center for Analysis of World Food Issues (CAWFI) Program Committee, 1977-1980; Africa Committee, 1987-1989; Irrigation Studies Group, 1982-1990.
  • College of Arts and Sciences: Educational Policy Committee, 1983-1987; Freshman Colloquium, 1990; Dean's Advisory Committee on Appointments, 1997-2000.
  • Department of Government: Director of Graduate Studies, 1986-1988; Graduate Studies Committee, most year, 1970-1990.
  • Field of International Development: director of graduate studies for Master of Professional Studies degree program in International Development, 1983-1985, 1987 to present
  • Cornell Institute for Public Affairs: member of Public Affairs field, 1982 to present; member of CIPA Core Faculty, 2005 to present; Acting Director, spring term, 2007.
  • Graduate School: General Committee of the Graduate School, member, 1991-1995; graduate faculty representative for Public Policy, 1972-1992.
  • Institute for African Development: member, Executive Committee, 1987-2002.
  • Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI): Steering Committee, 1990-1992.
  • Faculty Council of Representatives: non-tenured representative, 1971-1975; tenured representative, 1979-1981.
  • Cornell University: Committee on Privacy of Student Records, 1972-1973; Africana Studies and Research Center Review Committee, 1978; Research Council, 1988-1997; Strategic Planning Task Force on Graduate and Professional Education, 1994-1995; Outreach Council, 1996-1998.

Consultancies

  • Asian Productivity Organization: resource person for workshop on rural infrastructure, Tokyo, 1993; resource person for workshop on rural local institutions, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1998; seminar on decentralization and good governance, Colombo, 2001; seminar on irrigation management, Colombo, 2002; seminar on ‘best cases’ of rural development, Tokyo, 2003.

  • World Bank: participation in rural roads sector, 1984; participation in irrigation sector, 1984; Economic Development Institute: community participation in agricultural and rural development, 1986; consultant for World Development Report 1990 on promoting institutional opportunities for the poor, 1989-90; paper on monitoring and evaluation of popular participation in Bank projects, 1992; staff training for participatory development, 1993; workshop on linking informal organizations with decentralization programs, 1994; colloquium on investing in social capital: building community, 1996; training sessions on irrigation management and institutional reform, 1998; consultant on training program for decentralization, 1998; background paper on decentralization and community-based rural development, Rural Week '99, 1999; consultant for "Voices of the Poor" study as part of the World Development Report 2000; technical review committee on community-driven development, Operational Evaluation Division, 2004; rural local institutions and sustainable livelihoods, Social Development Department, 2006.

Journal Editing

  • International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability: co-editor, 2002-
  • Oxford Development Studies: International Advisory Board, 1995-2002.
  • Policy Sciences: International Editorial Board, 1998-2002.

background

educational background

  • B.A., University of Minnesota, 1963
  • M.P.A., Princeton University, 1966
  • Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1970

awards and distinctions

  • Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 2000-2002.
  • Distinguished Achievement Award, University of Minnesota, 2002.
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, from Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems Trust, Kathmandu, 2002.
  • Extraordinary Professor, University of the Free State, Blomfontein, South Africa, 2003-05
  • SEED Award 2005 (Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development), program established by UNDP, UNEP and IUCN; CIIFAD-led consortium for promotion of SRI methods to grow and market indigenous rice varieties was one of 5 awardees selected by international panel from >250 nominations

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • Strengthening Rural Local Institution Capabilities for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Development, with Louise Buck. Paper for Social Development Department, World Bank, 2006.           
  •  A remarkable civil society contribution to food and nutrition security in Madagascar and beyond, with Glenn Lines, in: Food and Nutritional Security in the Process of Globalization and Urbanization, eds.Uwe Kracht and Manfred Schulz, Lit-Publisher, Münster, Germany, 2005 (also SRI).               
  • Analytical issues in measuring empowerment at the community and local levels, in: Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, ed. Deepa Narayan, World Bank, 2005.            
  • Social capital and irrigation management: Bringing rigor and evidence to the relationship, in: Asian Irrigation in Transition: Responding to Challenges, eds. G. Shivakoti, D. Vermillion, W.- F. Lam, E. Ostrom, U. Pradhan, R.Yoder, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2005 (also Irrigation Management).     
  • Civil society and public sector institutions: More than a zero-sum relationship, with Anirudh Krishna, Public Administration and Development, 24:1, 2004.        
  •  Making social capital more than a descriptive term to support initiatives for poverty reduction, in: Social Capital and Poverty Reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean: Towards a New Paradigm, eds. Raúl Atria, Marcello Siles, Irma Arriagada, Lindon J. Robison and Scott Whiteford, U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile, 2004; El capital social y su capacidad de reducción de la probreza, in: Capital Social y Reducción de la Probreza en América Latina y el Caribe: En busca de un nuevo paradigma, eds. R. Atria and M. Siles, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Cribe, and Universidad del Estado de Michigan, Santiago, Chile, 2003.             
  • Mapping and measuring social capital through assessment of collective action to conserve and develop watersheds in Rajasthan, India, with Anirudh Krishna, in: Social Capital: Empirical Explorations, eds. Christian Grootaert and Thierry van Bastelaer, Cambridge University Press, 2002.          
  • An opportunity to enhance both food and water security with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), in: Food and Water Security, ed. U. Aswathanarayana, Taylor and Francis, 2007, forthcoming.               
  • Effects of repeated soil wetting and drying on lowland rice yield with System of Rice Intensification (SRI) methods, with Mustapha Ceesay, William S. Reid and Erick C. M. Fernandes, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 4:l, 2006.            
  • The System of Rice Intensification and its implications for agriculture. LEISA: Magazine for Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture, 22:4, 2006                  

speaker at Cornell event

Keywords: agroecology, development administration, participatory development, social capital, soil biology