Magic beans: A Wknd interview with sustainable-seeds warrior Swati Nayak

She knew nothing about agriculture, but developed an affinity for biology and the natural sciences. She sought out and aced an entrance exam conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research; went on to do a Master’s in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

She has since worked with tribes, small-land-holding farmers, women and men trying to support growing families off variable harvests. Her role has been focused on seeds — collaborating on new varieties, testing them in fields, working to promote the most resilient and high-yield ones, and to ensure that there is a viable market for these harvests.

It was an unconventional choice: a career in the niche field of bridging the gap between laboratory and farm, and farm and market. “I think my parents were initially heartbroken,” she says, smiling.

But the choices have paid off. Nayak, who lives in Delhi, is now South Asia lead with the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). In that role, she has been responsible for the field-testing of 500 new varieties of resilient, high-yield, bio-fortified rice, with 20 of these varieties gaining ground in Odisha, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and beyond India, in Bangladesh and Nepal.

She has earned the nickname Bihana Didi (or Seed Sister) among the tribal communities of Mayurbhanj, Odisha, where she and her team formulated a strategy to introduce the drought-tolerant and now-highly-popular Sahbhagi rice variety, in 2014.

And, last month, Nayak was announced as the winner of the Norman E Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, for her “innovative approach to engaging farmers in demand-driven rice seed systems”.

The award, instituted in memory of the American Nobel laureate, agronomist, and chief architect of the Green Revolution worldwide, is given to one exceptional scientist under 40 each year, working in the field of food and nutrition security and hunger eradication.

Incidentally, many previous winners have been from the Global South (Bangladesh, Turkey, Mexico, Benin), representing interesting innovations and new approaches to unfolding issues. Nayak is the third Indian to win.

Amid the climate crisis, her work takes on even greater urgency. “How is a farmer with less than one hectare of land to plan for the overlapping challenges of heatwaves, droughts and floods? Climate change is real and small land holders in particular are facing challenges,” she says.

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How did a young woman from Nimapada, a town 40 km outside Bhubaneswar, end up a global awardee in a field as niche as lab-to-farm-to-fork?

“I gained considerable managerial perspective in the context of rural livelihood during my two-year Master’s at IRMA. I really enjoyed that mix. I found economics and agribusiness classes more interesting than genes and genomes,” says Nayak, who also has a PhD in agricultural extension management strategy from Amity University.

She knew she wanted to be a footsoldier in the fight for food security. So when companies, NGOs and government institutions conducted campus-placement interviews at IRMA, she chose to enlist with the government’s Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA).

She spent 18 months there, as head of a project-monitoring unit in Andhra Pradesh. Then two years with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Delhi, in 2011-13. There, she anchored a women farmers empowerment programme that has helped millions of women make their fields more profitable, market forest produce, and enrol in training programmes to study subjects such as crop production, machine-handling and post-harvest storage.

“Women farmers are keen learners, and can change decisions in the household,” Nayak says. “About 50% of the workforce in agriculture is women. But they don’t have a share or presence in landholding patterns, and are therefore not recorded as farmers. As a result, they lose access to first-hand information, credit and training.”

In her own domain, women remain rare. “I was brought up to be independent, opinionated and dream big. But I still faced many challenges,” Nayak says. “I had motherhood, social expectations and biological limitations that I had to overcome to break the glass ceiling. But I had both passion and conviction.”

In 2016, for instance, Nayak was juggling the roles of mother to a seven-month-old, professional at IRRI, and PhD student. “I had to reduce my workload to be there for my baby. I worked all week and had PhD classes on the weekend. There were moments when it felt almost too much. But I went into that phase knowing I would have to work ten times harder than men or women who had no children, so I kept myself motivated.”

It helped that she had tremendous support from her husband, stock market expert Priyadarsi Bal, 41. “He has broken a lot of gender norms and stereotypes. Be it taking care of our child or household duty, we are equal partners,” Nayak says.

What’s next for the seed sister? “I have always worked for people who are less privileged. The goal has been empathy and inclusivity,” Nayak says. “I am just a drop in the ocean, but I want to be an example to women. I want them to know that independence can work. And that excellence only comes from having the courage to take risks.”