Dr. Kamal Vatta is a Professor at the Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and currently heads the Agricultural Marketing Innovations, Research and Intelligence Centre (AMIRIC). A recipient of several academic honors, including a PhD Gold Medal and international fellowships, he has held key positions such as Comptroller at PAU and Director of Columbia Water Center (India). Dr. Vatta has led over 30 national and international research projects on agricultural economics, groundwater, rural livelihoods, and sustainable food systems. His collaborations span Columbia University, University of Cambridge, Kyoto and Kobe Universities. He has over 150 publications and has been part of 180+ academic events globally. He has taught graduate-level agricultural economics and mentored several students. As Honorary Secretary of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, his work bridges research, policy, and field implementation, having directly engaged with over 100,000 farmers across India

Professional Accomplishments

Research Projects 

• Agricultural Marketing Innovations, Research and Intelligence Centre (AMIRIC) funded by Government of Punjab.

Research Publications

1. Adhale P, Bhoi P B, Kumar S, Arora K, Singh P, Gupta A K, and Vatta K (2025) Performance evaluation of ARIMA and TDNN models in forecasting of potato prices in Punjab. Agricultural Research Journal 62(2). (NAAS Rating: 5.16)
2. Arora K, Kumar S, Adhale P, Bhoi P B and Vatta K (2023) Addressing the impact of Covid-19 on dairy value chains: evidence from Punjab, India. Current Science 124: 570-577. (NAAS Rating: 7.17)
3. Sharma R K, Kumar S, Vatta K, Bheemanahali R, Dhillon J and Reddy K N (2022) Impact of recent climate change on corn, rice and wheat in southeastern USA. Scientific Reports, 12: 16928. (NAAS Rating: 10.99) 
4. Vatta K, Bhogal S, Green A S, Sharma H, Petrie C A and Dixit S (2022) COVID-19 Pandemic-Induced Disruptions and Implications for National Food Security and Farm Incomes: Farm-Level Evidence from Indian Punjab. Sustainability 14: 4452. (NAAS Rating: 9.89)
5. Bhogal S and Vatta K (2021) Can crop diversification be widely adopted to solve the water crisis in Punjab? Current Science 120: 1303-1307. (NAAS rating: 7.17)
6. Green A S, Dixit S, Garg K K, Sandya N R, Singh G, Vatta K, Whitbread A M, Jones M K, Singh R N and Petrie C A (2020) An interdisciplinary framework for using archaeology, history and collective action to enhance India’s agricultural resilience and sustainability. Environmental Research Letters, 15: 1-14. (NAAS rating: 12.95)

Awards and Recognitions

1. Honorary Fellow, Global Economic Unit, Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan since November 1, 2023.
2. Fellow and Honorary Secretary, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Mumbai.
3. Letter of Appreciation by Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan for supporting their research work on Paddy Stubble Management in India, 2022. 
4. President’s Award for co-chairing the session in International Conference on “Sustainable Agricultural Innovations for Resilient Agri-Food Systems” organized by Indian Ecological Society in SKUAST, Jammu, 2022. 
5. First Prize for the paper “Performance of SARIMAX and NARX Model in Predicting Tomato Prices in India” in the 1st Annual Conference of Indian Society for Agricultural Development and Policy, 2022. 
6. Dr Anamitra Saha Prize for the best published paper titled “Effects of Income Sources On Inequality among Agricultural Households in Northeast India” published in Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics during 2021.  
7. Dr NA Majumdar Award for best paper “Optimizing Irrigation Water Use in Punjab: Role of Crop Diversification and Technology”, received at 75th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Mumbai, 2015. 
8. Gold Medal (Academic) in the Ph.D Program by the Society for Advancement of Academics, Sports and Cultural Activities (SAASCA), College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, PAU, Ludhiana. 
9. Dr Sukhdev Singh Prize for Essay and Oration 2001-02 by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (won during 2005). 
10. German Foundation for International Development (DSE) Fellowship to participate in Diploma in “Agricultural Research for Development” organized by International Center for development-oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA), Wageningen, The Netherlands from January 14 to July 25, 2002.