Dr ML Jat is Global Research Program Director for Resilient Farm and Food Systems at ICRISAT. Dr Jat is a well-recognized Systems Agronomist with over 25 years of rich experience in Systems Science across the developing world. As a Global Research Program Director for Resilient Farm and Food Systems at ICRISAT, Dr Jat leads and provides scientific, strategic and partnership guidance to dynamic and vibrant research teams of the program across five clusters – Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Science, Geo-spatial and Big Data Sciences, Digital Agriculture, Landscapes, soil health and water science and ICRISAT Development Center. Before joining ICRISAT, Dr Jat served as Principal Scientist/Systems Agronomist and Sustainable Agrifood System (SAS) Strategy Leader for Asia & North Africa at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for 13 years. After obtaining PhD degree in Agronomy from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, he served Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as a Systems Agronomist for 11 years before joining CIMMYT in 2009. Devoted more than two decades to intensively work on basic and applied science in agronomy, soils and environment to promote Conservation Agriculture (CA) based sustainable intensification and climate smart agriculture in smallholder systems of Asia. His research on CA has provided scientifically sound basis and directions through > 350 peer reviewed high impact journal articles, books and manuals etc for promoting sustainable intensification through policy changes and led to impact at scale in Smallholder systems of Asia and Africa. He has been on forefront in capacity building to develop new cadre of researchers across the Asian and Africa Countries.

Dr Jat has served several reputed international and national scientific bodies and fora including International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), USA etc in various capacities. A Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Dr Jat has several awards and recognitions to his credit including ICAR’s prestigious Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award-2018, Gold Medal (2015) of the Indian Society of Agronomy, Fellow of Indian Society of Agronomy (ISA), New Delhi, The FAI Golden Jubilee Award for Excellence-2017, PS Deshmukh Young Agronomist Award-2004 of ISA, Young Soil Conservationist Award-2006, Certificate of Appreciation by Government of Cambodia, IPNI-FAI award for Best Research on Management and balanced use of inputs in achieving maximum yield (2012) by The International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) & The Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), Prof Mahatim Singh Memorial Award (2015) by Society for Advancement of Wheat Research (SAWR), ICAR-IIWBR, India, Plaque of Appreciation (2014) by APAARI-CIMMYT-FAO-DoA (Thailand), Recognition Award (2014) of International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and Recognition Award (2020) of CIMMYT.