Dr. Latha Nagarajan joined IFDC in 2011. She currently serves as the Director of the SOILS Consortium. Nagarajan has previously headed the institution-wide MELS systems and coordinated the Feed the Future SFT Project. She is an Applied and Agricultural Economist, with specific focus on project and program evaluation and assessment of agricultural technologies adoption, input market interventions and policy research. She has been also involved in studying the seed systems and markets in south Asia and sub-Saharan African countries with several development partners and works closely the Rutgers University Feed the Future Policy Research Consortium.
Prior to IFDC, Nagarajan worked at Rutgers University as faculty research professor managing projects funded through Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and USAID; post-doctoral researcher at IFPRI, managing research in India, Kenya and Niger; graduate research positions at the applied economics department, University of Minnesota; and economist and project manager for projects at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India.
Nagarajan holds a Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Minnesota, with bachelor’s and master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences, and Business Management from India, and has published articles in peer reviewed journals.
Selected Publications
Anderson, J.R., L. Nagarajan, A. Naseem, C. Pray, and T.A. Reardon. 2020. “New Corona Virus, Food Security and Identifying Policy Options.” Wieś i Rolnictwo, 4(189):77-88. https://doi.org/10.7366/wir042020/05[JT1]
Nagarajan, L., A. Naseem, and C.E. Pray. 2020. “Seed Policy Reforms in Zambia,” Agrilinks, March 9, 2020. https://www.agrilinks.org/post/seed-policy-reforms-zambia
Pray, C., L. Nagarajan, A. Naseem, and J.R. Anderson. 2020. “Chapter 3: Investing in Innovation,” IN Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture, pp. 95-146, K. Fuglie, M. Gautam, A. Goyal, and W. Maloney (Eds.), World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32350/978146481393.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y
Nagarajan, L., A. Naseem, and Pray, C. (2019), “Contribution of policy change on maize varietal development and yields in Kenya”, Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 9(1): 4-21.
Pray, C., L. Nagarajan, A. Naseem.(2018). “The Role of Multinational Corporations in the Supply of Agricultural Production Technology to China & India”. World Food Policy, 4 (2).
Nagarajan, L., A. Naseem and C. Pray (2016) “The Political Economy of Genetically Modified Maize in Kenya” AgBioforum 19(2): 198-214.
Pray, C. and L. Nagarajan. 2014. The Transformation of Indian Agricultural Input Industries: Has It Increased Agricultural R&D?” Agricultural Economics (45), 145-156.
