Ramesh Chand

Ramesh Chand joined the CIMMYT Board of Trustees in April 2016.

Chand is currently Union Minister of State with the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, a government of India policy think tank. He earned a doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi. He is fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics. Honors he has received throughout his career include the Jawaharlal Nehru Award and the Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Award of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Chand has more than 32 years of experience in research and teaching in the field of agricultural economics and policy. Prior to joining NITI Aayog he worked in senior academic positions as the Director of the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research in New Delhi, ICAR National Professor, professor and head of the Institute of Economic Growth at Delhi University and professor at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. Chand has also served as visiting professor at University of Wollongong in the Australian state of New South Wales and at the Institute of Developing Economies in Chiba City in Japan. Additionally, he has worked as a consultant with such international organizations as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, U.N. Development Programme, U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, World Bank and Commonwealth.

Chand has represented India at ESCAP, South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, and the G20, a forum for governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies. He has chaired important committees on agriculture policy arranged by various ministries of the government of India. Chand has authored seven books and published more than 100 research papers in national and international journals on such topics as agricultural production; growth; development and policy; farmers issues and markets and trade.