Person: Prasann, Ashesh
Loading...
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Degrees
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated: June 11, 2025
Biography
Ashesh Prasann is a senior agriculture economist in the World Bank’s Office of Global
Director for the Agriculture and Food Global Practice. He is currently working on climate
mitigation through the agrifood system and repurposing of agriculture support policies and
programs. Previously, he has authored major analytical pieces, including the World Bank’s
flagship reports Future of Food: Shaping the Food System to Deliver Jobs and Scaling Up
Disruptive Agricultural Technologies in Africa. He has also led World Bank investment and
advisory projects in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a
PhD in agricultural, food, and resource economics from Michigan State University, an MPP
from the University of Chicago, and undergraduate degrees in economics and international
studies from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.
5 results
Publication Search Results
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Publication Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-20) Sutton, William R.; Lotsch, Alexander; Prasann, AsheshThe global agrifood system has been largely overlooked in the fight against climate change. Yet, greenhouse gas emissions from the agrifood system are so big that they alone could cause the world to miss the goal of keeping global average temperatures from rising above 1.5 centigrade compared to preindustrial levels. Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood must be cut to net zero by 2050 to achieve this goal. Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System offers the first comprehensive global strategic framework to mitigate the agrifood system’s contributions to climate change, detailing affordable and readily available measures that can cut nearly a third of the world’s planet heating emissions while ensuring global food security. These actions, which are urgently needed, offer three additional benefits: improving food supply reliability, strengthening the global food system’s resilience to climate change, and safeguarding vulnerable populations. This practical guide outlines global actions and specific steps that countries at all income levels can take starting now, focusing on six key areas: investments, incentives, information, innovation, institutions, and inclusion. Calling for collaboration among governments, businesses, citizens, and international organizations, it maps a pathway to making agrifood a significant contributor to addressing climate change and healing the planet.Publication Scaling Up Disruptive Agricultural Technologies in Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-24) Kim, Jeehye; Shah, Parmesh; Gaskell, Joanne Catherine; Prasann, Ashesh; Luthra, AkankshaThis study—which includes a pilot intervention in Kenya—aims to further the state of knowledge about the emerging trend of disruptive agricultural technologies (DATs) in Africa, with a focus on supply-side dynamics. The first part of the study is a stocktaking analysis to assess the number, scope, trend, and characteristics of scalable disruptive technology innovators in agriculture in Africa. From a database of 434 existing DAT operations, the analysis identified 194 as scalable. The second part of the study is a comparative case study of Africa’s two most successful DAT ecosystems in Kenya and Nigeria, which together account for half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s active DATs. The objective of these two case studies is to understand the successes, challenges, and opportunities faced by each country in fostering a conducive innovation ecosystem for scaling up DATs. The case study analysis focuses on six dimensions of the innovation ecosystem in Kenya and Nigeria: finance, regulatory environment, culture, density, human capital, and infrastructure. The third part of the study is based on the interactions and learning from a pilot event to boost the innovation ecosystem in Kenya. The Disruptive Agricultural Technology Innovation Knowledge and Challenge Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, brought together more than 300 key stakeholders from large technology companies, agribusiness companies, and public agencies; government representatives and experts from research and academic institutions; and representatives from financial institutions, foundations, donors, and venture capitalists. Scaling Up Disruptive Agricultural Technologies in Africa concludes by establishing that DATs are demonstrating early indications of a positive impact in addressing food system constraints. It offers potential entry points and policy recommendations to facilitate the broader adoption of DATs and improve the overall food system.Publication Productivity and Health: Physical Activity as a Measure of Effort(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2020-06-11) Akogun, Oladele; Dillon, Andres; Friedman, Jed; Prasann, Ashesh; Serneels, PieterThis paper examines the relationship between physical activity and individual productivity among agricultural workers paid on a piece-rate basis. In the context studied, physical activity has a clear correspondence with worker effort. Agricultural workers’ physical activity is directly observed from accelerometer data and is robustly associated with their daily productivity. In addition the impact of a health intervention, which provides malaria testing and treatment, on physical activity and productivity, indicates that the increased daily productivity of workers who are offered this program is explained by worker effort reallocation from low-intensity to high-intensity work within a fixed time period. This demonstrates, in settings when individual productivity is observed, that physical activity measures can help disentangle productivity effects due to effort. When productivity is unobserved, physical activity measures may proxy for individual productivity in physically demanding tasks. The challenges and limitations of physical activity measurement using accelerometers is discussed including their potential use for alternative contexts and the importance of field and data analysis protocols.Publication Future of Food: Shaping the Food System to Deliver Jobs(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-04-01) Townsend, Robert; Benfica, Rui Manuel; Prasann, Ashesh; Lee, MariaShaping the Food System to Deliver Jobs is the fourth paper in a series on The Future of Food. This paper focuses on how the food system can deliver jobs. It provides a framework for understanding the factors determining the number and quality of jobs in the food system, including inclusion of women and youth. It highlights a set of actions that countries can adopt, adapt, and apply to their own circumstances to enhance the food system’s contribution to jobs. The food system extends beyond farm production to include food storage, processing, distribution, transport, retailing, restaurants and other services. The paper finds that the food system employs the most people in many developing countries in both self and wage employment, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In many countries the off-farm aspect of the food system accounts for a large share of the economy’s manufacturing and services sectors. While the employment share in farming tends to decline as per capita incomes rise, the share in food manufacturing and services tends to increase. Urbanization and per capita income growth offers significant new opportunities in non-cereal products and in new jobs in the food system beyond the farm.Publication Productivity and Health: Alternative Productivity Estimates Using Physical Activity(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-10) Akogun, Oladele; Dillon, Andrew; Friedman, Jed; Prasann, Ashesh; Serneels, PieterThis paper investigates an alternative proxy for individual worker productivity in physical work settings: a direct measure of physical activity using an accelerometer. First, the paper compares worker labor outcomes, such as labor supply and daily productivity obtained from firm personnel data, with physical activity; they are strongly related. Second, the paper investigates the effect of a health intervention on physical activity, using a temporally randomized offer of malaria testing and treatment. Workers who are offered this program reallocate time from lower intensity activities in favor of higher intensity activities when they work.