Swati Nayak

As IRRI South Asia’s Lead for Seed System and Product Management, Swati’s work entails enhancing breeding impact by delivery of genetic gain in farmer field, and positioning right products in market segments. She also serves as the Global Lead for Rice and Cereal Seed System group under the initiative Seed Equal of CGIAR, a global research partnership of centers conducting research on agriculture food systems.

Swati holds the prestigious title of Norman E. Borlaug Field Award Winner for 2023, received from World Food Prize Foundation, endowed by Rockefeller Foundation.

Swati’s experience spans 15 years of Research and delivery expertise in rural innovation model, scaling and uptake of sustainable and climate smart agriculture, noble germplasms and quality seeds.  She carries significant experience around various alternative technology delivery models, partnerships, institutional and policy innovations, on-farm testing protocols around delivering genetic gain in farmer field through seed system innovations. Throughout her career she has pioneered various gender inclusive and socially equitable scaling and institutional innovations across various national and global flagships or  programmes.