My non-privileged background paved the way for who I am today: Swati Nayak

"All my life I have mostly worked in farm and rural livelihood sectors with direct engagement with men and women farmers", she said

Swati Nayak, scientist and South Asia lead for Seed System and Product Management at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has been named the 2023 recipient of the Norman E Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation. Nayak, only the third Indian to get the award that honours scientists below 40 years of age, has been recognised for her innovative approach in engaging with smallholder farmers in rice seed systems.

In 2021, through Nayak’s efforts, women-led enterprises were able to produce, distribute, and sell approximately 8.5 metric tonnes of seeds to quality farmers, more than 40 per cent of whom were women. In an interview with Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Nayak details her life’s journey. Edited excerpts:

You have been honoured with the prestigious Borlaug Field Award 2023. Tell us about your journey so far.

It is an incredible recognition for me to be in the league of past recipients. All my life I have mostly worked in farm and rural livelihood sectors by directly engaging with men and women farmers.

My academic background, professional training and personal commitment helped me understand farms and farmers very well, especially in rice and rice-based food systems.

What challenges did you face in the path you chose, while coming from a non-metropolitan background?

Yes, I was born and completed my school education in a small town called Nimapada in Odisha, about 40 km from Bhubaneswar. The schools we had then lacked the privilege of modern infrastructure. There were no English medium schools either.

So when I shifted to Bhubaneswar for higher secondary in a well-known institute called BJB College, I had to basically re-learn the entire terminology for every subject from Odia to English.

I graduated from Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad. I continued to pursue my passion of being with the rural community and studied in the Institute of Rural Management, Gujarat.

It wasn’t easy as you need to survive under harsh and spartan conditions, but all those years made me the person or the professional I am today. A non-privileged background paved the way for where I am today.

You have worked in a rural setting for several years. How did that shape your understanding of the problems that farmers face today, particularly those who own small tracts of land?

I have mostly spent my entire professional life in rural settings and dealt with several farm problems.

My first job was in the Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Seethampeta in Srikakulam district (Nayak was supervising Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and other rural development programmes there).

So, whatever I had done earlier was nothing compared to this phase where I lived in an area full of forests, rugged terrain with minimal infrastructure and facilities, and that too alone, away from family and friends.

I was skeptical from the first day itself of whether I could survive alone in this job and if I made the right decision. But I immersed myself in the tribal community and with the help of some amazing staff I became a part of the little change I could bring there.

Then, as a natural progression, I got a chance to work in an esteemed science-based organisation like IRRI where I used those principles and learnings to make sure that the technology and innovations reach the community or farmers who need it.

You have carried out some 10,000 field trials for 500-odd rice varieties resilient to various climatic conditions. How many are being actively used by farmers and in which areas of the country?

Eastern India and also Bangladesh, as I work extensively in South Asia, are some major rice-producing belts and the smallholder systems are predominantly rainfed.

In India, we have done trials on several location-appropriate varieties in states such as Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. Those field-based trials were done to demonstrate the worth of new varieties and trigger their adoption.

Our study strongly indicates that 70 per cent of farmers, who were part of this programme, adopted best-fit paddy varieties and are reaping benefits out of those varieties.

While we were doing the trials, we took blindfold nominations from various breeding institutions in the country and only the best of the best variety was offered to farmers for scaling.

By now, we have scaled around 20 promising varieties that emerged from our trials.

Climate change has emerged as a major problem in rice cultivation and every year we are seeing this pose a new threat. How do the varieties developed by you or those in which you have worked address these concerns?

That’s a priority area at IRRI.

IRRI, in association with national partners in Asia (notably with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture in Bangladesh, and Nepal Agricultural Research Council), has successfully bred varieties that can tolerate submergence and drought spell with minimal yield loss.

There is a variety called Sahbhagi Dhan developed jointly by IRRI and ICAR, which is ideal for drought-prone upland areas.

The sub 1 gene, discovered by IRRI, was injected in several conventional varieties to make them flood-tolerant. Swarna sub 1, now a very popular variety in eastern India, is a perfect example.

In coastal areas, the varieties developed can cope with salinity, caused by seawater intrusion.

Thus some of these developed varieties are helping farmers better manage the emerging threats from climate change.