Tara Nath Pandey, Ph.D.

Senior Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Security Expert

Dr. Pandey has more than 20 years of experience in research, planning, evaluation and managing change in agriculture, food security, climate change, and livelihood sector in Nepal and post-doctoral research in Japan. He has proven success in managing substantial and complex development projects related to agriculture & livestock, production, processing, and marketing value chain, women & community empowerment, youth engagement, natural resource management, renewable energy & emergency responses, climate change & variability. Experience in development of interventions on climate-smart agriculture and mitigating flood and drought-related risks on agriculture & livestock production, grant management, monitoring & evaluation (M&E), team management, supporting & supervising others. Mainstreaming adaptation & enhancing adaptive capacity by encouraging partnerships between informal processes & formal interventions. Ability to both lead and work collaboratively within a team, assessing climate change impacts, training needs, designing & implementing training programs, institutional strengthening, capacity building, & training in sustainable agriculture, adaptation technologies & practices review literature, secondary data collection, and analysis. Experience in field research, survey (baseline, end line, case studies etc.), data collection and documentation & perform in-depth analysis of quantitative & qualitative data. He has conducted 38 short-term and long-term research among them 16 were evaluation including USAID funded SIMI Project.

His career has evolved from a B. Sc. (Hons) in Agriculture student at Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, India; a Livestock Officer at Department of Livestock Services (DLS), Ministry of Agriculture Development (MOAD), Nepal; MSc in Animal Science student, Wageningen University and Research Center (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands; PhD in Plant Science student at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; a post-doctoral (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) fellow at NARO Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS), Japan; a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, Nepal; a Volunteer with Conservation Volunteer Australia and Greening Australia, ACT, Australia; a Researcher, The Royal National Capital Agricultural Society (RNCAS), Canberra, Australia; and a consultant at International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Save the Children Nepal, Oxfam Nepal, GIZ (INCLUDE) Nepal and Lutheran International Nepal; WWF Nepal, Ministry of Agriculture Development; Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment; and Social Welfare Council. In parallel to his formal positions, he has presented papers/reports and chaired, co-chaired or directed national and international scientific seminars/workshops, technical and economic assessments of sustainable agriculture and/or livestock development, livelihood improvement options, biodiversity and ecosystems, Climate Change Adaptation Technologies and Practices.