Pravesh Sharma voluntarily retired from the IAS in January 2016 after a career spanning

34 years and is currently supporting a start-up in agriculture marketing. In his last assignment, he served for five years as Managing Director of the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (2010-15), Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, and undertook a successful national campaign to mobilize farmers into producer organisations (FPOs) to integrate smallholders in the value chain.

He was selected to the Indian Administrative Service in 1982. He served for over 20 years in Madhya Pradesh, where he held postings as District Magistrate in 5 districts, besides senior level assignments in food and agriculture, rural finance and natural resources management. He also served for 3 years in the Prime Minister’s Office between 1999 and 2001. He is currently affiliated on a part-time basis as: Visiting Senior Fellow, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a New Delhi based think tank; Adviser (Agriculture and Food Processing) at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), New Delhi; and Chief Adviser, Madhya Bharat Consortium of Farmer Producer Companies, Bhopal.

He has a Master’s in History from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He spent one year as Visiting Fellow at the Center of International Studies, Princeton University, USA (1994-95), researching food policy issues. He served on a 5-year UN assignment with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) between 2001 and 2006. He has written extensively on issues of agriculture, rural development and rural finance and is widely published in journals and newspapers. He has also co-edited 2 books, including one on food and agriculture issues with Prof. M.S. Swaminathan. Currently, he contributes a fortnightly column on The Rural Page of the Indian Express on agriculture policy issues.