NF COALITION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- National Coordinator, RRA Network and Director WASSAN
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Steering Committee
- Distinguished Professor, Shiv Nadar University
As Member, Planning Commission, Government of India, Dr. Mihir Shah was chiefly responsible for drafting the paradigm shift in the management of water resources articulated in the 12th Five Year Plan. After co-founding Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) in 1990, Dr. Shah has spent the last 30 years of his life, living and working with Adivasi communities to forge an alternative paradigm of inclusive and sustainable development. Today SPS is one of India's largest grassroots initiatives for water and livelihood security. In 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti invited Dr. Shah to chair the committee to draft the new National Water Policy. Wikipedia link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihir_Shah
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Associate Professor of Sociology and Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology
- Associate Professor, IIT Delhi
Dr Richa Kumar is Associate Professor of Sociology and Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and holds a position as Associate Faculty, School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi. Her research and teaching interests are in the Sociology of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Science and Technology Studies, and Rural and Agrarian Policy. She is a co-author of the State of Rural and Agrarian India Report 2020 and her current research is on the impact of monoculture farming on farm systems, the environment, and human health. She is a member of the Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies (NRAS)
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Senior Consultant
- Senior Consultant RySS
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Steering Committee
- Co - Chair
- Chief Executive of Foundation for Ecological Security
A practitioner from the very beginning, Jagdeesh's 35 year professional engagement has been on interrelated issues of poverty and environmental degradation and on ‘systems thinking' at the interface of ecology, society and economy.
Jagdeesh has been the Chief Executive of Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) since its inception in 2001 till July 2020. He has been actively engaged in influencing policy, advancing knowledge generation and exchange, and building a larger constituency for Commons. While his work has been on village commons such as community forests and pastures, he believes that Commons as a paradigm of self regulatory governance holds promise for urban areas and other domains such as knowledge, data and similar shared resources.
Jagdeesh has been conferred the ‘Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship' (2015) and he is also a Henry Arnhold (Mulago) Conservation Fellow (2017) and Senior Ashoka Fellow (2021). His areas of interest include Commons, polycentric governance, shared knowledge and action platforms, and systems change.
He is married with two precious daughters. And is currently based out of his home town - Nagarjuna Sagar and frequently shuttles down to Hyderabad.
Kalpana Khanra shares how despite the changing climate in the Sundarbans, she is able to give her family nutritious food all round the year
Kavitha Kuruganti is a social activist working to uphold farmers' rights and to promote sustainable farm livelihoods. Trained as a Development Communicator, she has been working in the field of sustainable agriculture for more than 29 years now. She is one of the Founders and Convenors of ASHA-Kisan Swaraj (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture). She is also a founder and member of the National Facilitation Team of MAKAAM (Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch). Kavitha is also associated with farmers' platforms like Samyukt Kisan Morcha. She served as a Member in the Government of India's Ramesh Chand Committee on MSP fixing formula in India, Task Force on Organic and Non Chemical Farming in India and in the High-Level Committee on the Status of Women in India, in addition to being part of other such committees at state level too.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- IAS Officer
Narayan Sonagara shares how with his wife Paani being the backbone of his farm and family, they have been able to successfully fulfil his dream of converting their land into a natural farm. Interviewed and written by Kartik Joshi from AKRSP-I, Gujarat Haripar Village, Kalyanpur block, Devbhumi, Dwarka Dist., Gujarat My name is Narayan Sonagara.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Ex - Officio Member - Secretary and Executive Director, PRADAN
Narendranath has been with PRADAN since 1989. He has served in many senior management positions, including leading the embedded cell with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). He received a degree in mechanical engineering from Kerala University and a PGDRM from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).
Narendranath is an experienced Development professional who has spent all his career making lives better for the rural poor. Skilled in Microfinance, Social Entrepreneurship, Community Development, Project Planning, and Program Management. Extensive grass-roots experience in extreme poverty pockets of the country; in leading professional teams in development projects and also frontal role in the organisation on knowledge building, training and grooming of development professionals and in policy advocacy.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Executive Director WASSAN
Ravindra is presently the executive director of WASSAN. He has a background of Agriculture Sciences and Development Economics.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Steering Committee
A recent recipient of the Padma Shri for her work on agriculture, Sabarmatee is the co-founder of Sambhav, an organisation dedicated to environment and gender issues. Sabarmatee along with her father (Late)Prof Radhamohan is credited for transforming a degraded piece of land into a vast "food forest" using only organic techniques in the Nayagarh district, Odisha. Popularly known as 'Tiki apa', she , along with her small team , has contributed to experiment, practice and promotion of organic farming and biodiversity conservation besides other activities.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Programme Manager in RySS and Associate Scientist With CIFOR ICRAF
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Executive Vice Chairman, RySS Ex Officio Spl Chief Secretary to Govt ( Natural Farming ) Agriculture and Cooperation Dept Govt of a.P.
A Physics honour student and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (1977). He joined the Government, in 1983, in the Indian Administrative Service. Allotted to Andhra Pradesh (A.P) cadre. In his 37 years of Govt. service, he has spent about 25 years in large scale community mobilization and promotion of livelihoods of rural women, tribal communities and farmers. He spent a record 10 years, 2000 to 2010 as CEO of Society for elimination of Rural Poverty (S.E.R.P) in A.P and led the mobilizing and empowerment of 11.5 million rural poor women into thrift and credit-based self-help groups (SHGs) and their federations, to enable them to come out of poverty. From 2010 to 2015, was the first Mission Director of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (N.R.L.M), Govt of India. He has taken the lessons of SERP to the whole country, with a vision of mobilising 100 million rural women into S.H.G s and federations. As on date, NRLM has been successful in organizing 70 million rural women in India into SHGs and federations. He returned to Govt. of AP in April 2015 as Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture Dept. After his retirement in September, 2016 he has been appointed as the Adviser to Govt, Agriculture Dept. For the past 5 years, he has been leading the climate resilient, A.P Community managed Natural Farming, also known as Zero budget Natural farming. Renamed as Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming in 2020, he is currently, serving as Executive Vice-Chairman of RySS and Ex Officio Spl Chief Secretary to Govt (Natural Farming) Agriculture and Cooperation Dept Govt of A.P. This programme has enrolled 750,000 farmers and farm workers in A.P. This work builds on the large scale mobilization of rural women in the State by SERP, from the year 2000. The vision is to enroll by 2027, all the 80 lakh (8 million) farmers and farm workers in AP and to make the whole state a natural farming state. He was also the Vice Chair (Productions) of the Champions Network for the United Nations Food Systems Summit held in September 2021.e.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- NF State Co - Facilitator - Madhya Pradesh