ICAR Chief M. L. Jat Addresses Borlaug Dialogue Roundtable

Dr M. L. Jat, Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has asked for agricultural higher education to be rethought so that the next generation of professionals is ready for global problems. He spoke virtually at a roundtable held alongside the 2026 Norman E Borlaug International Dialogue, the World Food Prize Foundation’s annual gathering at Des Moines in the United States.

The capacity he was speaking in

Dr Jat addressed the meeting as President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India, and the audience was largely the Indian agricultural diaspora. He acknowledged the Academy’s own representation at the programme: its Secretary, Dr B. S. Dwivedi; its Foreign Secretary, Dr Karim Meredia; and the Convener of its International Chapter for the Western Hemisphere, Dr P. V. Varaprasad.

Why education must change

The problems he listed are the ones farming now runs into everywhere: climate change, the degradation of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity, and a rising demand for food that is both nutritious and healthy. Agricultural education and research, he said, must be transformed to match what agri-food systems now require. He pressed for a shift away from an approach centred only on production, towards an integrated view of agri-food systems and the whole value chain.

Industry, policy and partnerships

Closer work between universities and industry, he argued, is what produces graduates industry can actually employ, and it also draws industry into every link of the agri-food value chain, including support to farmers. On the Academy’s policy role, he pointed to policy dialogues, policy papers and policy briefs as the instruments for taking up critical questions in agricultural research and development, and said researchers, policymakers, academic institutions and industry have to be brought to the same table to build shared answers.

The diaspora and a new MoU

Dr Jat described efforts to link the Indian agricultural diaspora back to research and teaching institutions at home, so that knowledge travels in both directions. On expanding institutional ties abroad, he pointed to a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), which is expected to open fresh ground in agricultural research, capacity building and the exchange of knowledge. He said stronger international partnerships would advance agricultural research, education and extension, and would matter especially for the countries of the Global South, and called for collective work to make agri-food systems more resilient and sustainable.