NITI Aayog member, Ramesh Chand has been nominated by the government for the coveted position of the Director General of the United Nation’s (UN) Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
It is important to mention that the DG FAO post is considered to be one of the highest designations due to the wide range of work that the FAO does, including organizing food-aid programmes in over 150 countries across the globe.
As per the rotation policy, this year the head of FAO has to be someone from Europe or Asia. The present head of FAO is Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva. Silva, the inventor of Brazil’s Zero Hunger or Fome Zero programme, was 1st elected as Director General of FAO in January 2012 for 4 years. Later, Silva got re-elected for a 2nd four-year period in August 2015, with the votes of 177 nations.
Now coming towards, Ramesh Chand holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Chand has a huge 33 years of experience in research as well as teaching in the field of agricultural economics and policy. He has been involved in policy formulation for the farming sector for the past 15 years. Before joining the NITI Aayog, Chand was the Chief of the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research.
According to media reports, Beijing is rooting for Shengen Fan, present chief of International Food Policy Research Institute while Europe has selected a former economist.
It must be noted that the last Indian to hold this position was Shri. Bimal Ranjan Sen, who was elected as Director General FAO in the year 1956 and remained in the post till 1967.
The term of the serving DG, Silva ends on 31st August. The delegates from 194 FAO member nations will select the new head in last week of June 2019. The member nations can nominate their candidates till the end of February.
