Dr Himanshu Pathak, DG, ICAR Appointed as New Director General of ICRISAT

Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has been appointed as the new Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Dr. Pathak is the first Indian to hold this prestigious position and only the second individual of Indian origin, following Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, to lead a research institute within the global CGIAR system. Dr. Swaminathan was the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the CGIAR rice research laboratory in the Philippines, from 1982 to 1988. Currently, Dr. Jacqueline d'Arros Hughes is the Director General of ICRISAT.

About Dr. Himanshu Pathak

• Dr. Himanshu Pathak is currently serving as the Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He was previously the Director of the ICAR-NRRI in Cuttack, India.

• He did his Ph.D. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. And later on, completed MSc in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He also studied BSc in Agriculture from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

• He has won some prestigious awards like the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) Young Scientist Award, 1994; Indian Society of Soil Science Golden Jubilee Commemoration Young Scientist Award, 1998; ISCA Dr. B.C. Deb Memorial Award, 2001; IRRI Outstanding Administrative Support Award, 2007; ISCA President, Agriculture and Forestry Sciences Section, 2008-09, and many more.

About ICRISAT

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing agricultural research aimed at improving dryland farming and food systems. Its mission is to combat hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and environmental degradation in the dryland regions of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT operates under the leadership of a full-time Director General, who works under the guidance of an international Governing Board.