Dr.Himanshu Pathak officially assumed charge as Director General of ICRISAT on March 6, 2025, following the tenures of Dr. Jacqueline Hughes and interim DG Dr. Stanford Blade. The announcement of his appointment in October 2024 was immediately recognized as a historic moment, not only for Dr. Pathak personally but for the entire Indian agricultural research community.He is the first Indian national to be appointed Director General of ICRISAT in its more than 50-year history.
This appointment carries profound historical and strategic weight. Dr. Pathak is only the second person of Indian origin to lead a research institute within the global CGIAR system, following the legendary Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, who served as Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) from 1982 to 1988. This comparison deliberately places Dr. Pathak in a lineage of transformative Indian agricultural leaders who have shaped the global agenda. The appointment was lauded by key global agricultural leaders, including ICRISAT Governing Board Chair Professor PrabhuPingali and CGIAR Executive Managing Director Dr.IsmahaneElouafi, who highlighted his unique expertise to lead the institute in an era of climate change, population growth, and evolving development funding dynamics.
The significance of this appointment, however, transcends the profile of the individual. It signals a fundamental shift in the relationship between India and the CGIAR system. For five decades, India has been the host nation for ICRISAT—the only CGIAR centre headquartered in the country—and a primary partner and beneficiary of its research. The appointment of the sitting Director General of ICAR and Secretary of DARE to this role marks a transition from India as a host to India as a helmsman. This was not the selection of a retired academic but of the active head of the country’s national agricultural system, implying a deliberate strategic decision by both the Government of India and the ICRISAT Governing Board to forge a much tighter, more synergistic alignment. The move repositions ICRISAT from being an international entity located in India to an international entity operating in strategic concert with India.
Furthermore, Dr. Pathak’s background in hard agricultural sciences, rather than traditional development economics, foreshadows a change in ICRISAT’s operational philosophy. His appointment is the necessary precursor to a new development model for the institute. This model pivots away from a traditional North-South aid framework towards a South-South cooperation model focused on technology transfer and knowledge sharing. With his deep understanding of India’s vast and diverse agricultural innovation ecosystem, Dr. Pathak is uniquely positioned to leverage these assets for the benefit of the entire Global South, particularly the dryland regions of Africa where ICRISAT has a major presence. His appointment is thus the critical first step in operationalizing a new vision where Indian-developed and adapted solutions are validated and scaled out through ICRISAT’s established global network, transforming India from a recipient of global knowledge into a key provider.
–Krishna Murthy Punna
