S.S. Acharya, former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Government of India, and former Director, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (IDSJ) is currently Honorary Professor at IDSJ. He has over 46 years of experience as teacher, researcher, extension worker, development administrator and policy advisor. He had been Professor of Agricultural Economics in Rajasthan Agricultural University and also held the ICAR Professional Chair of National Fellow. He has been and continues to be the Chairman/Member of several national and international Committees/Task Forces/Panels. Dr. Acharya has presided over annual conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (1996), and Indian Society of Agricultural Marketing (1994), and is currently the President of Agricultural Economics Research Association of India. He is well known for his contributions in Agricultural Marketing, Agricultural Prices, Agricultural Development and Policy Analysis. He has to his credit 11 books and several research papers and articles in national and international journal of repute. He is the Chief Editor of Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing.

B.C. Barah is presently Principal Scientist (Economics) at the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi. His research interest includes risk management in agriculture, sustainable agriculture particularly the sustainability of agriculture in fragile areas, technology and institutions for the risk prone areas and the patterns of growth and development. He has served various institutions including ICRISAT, Central University, Hyderabad, NABARD, Cornell and Duke Universities in USA, International Rice Research Institute, Philippines to name a few.

B.S. Baviskar was educated at Pilkhod, Chalisgaon, Satara, Pune and Delhi. He taught Sociology at the University of Delhi for over 30 years. Currently he is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. He has held visiting appointments at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex; Institute of Social Studies, the Hague; McGill University, Montreal; and the American University in Cairo. He was President of the Indian Sociological Society during 2000-2001. His major publications include: The Politics of Development: Sugar Co-operatives in Rural Maharashtra (1980); Who Shares? Co-operatives and Rural Development, co-edited with D.W. Attwood (1988); Finding the Middle Path: The Political Economy of Co-operation in Rural India, co-authored with D.W. Attwood (1995); and Social Structure and Change, 5 volumes, co-edited with A.M. Shah and E.A. Ramaswamy (1996-98); Series Editor, Themes in Indian Sociology, 7 volumes (2003-05).

G.S. Bhalla is at present Professor Emeritus, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a former Member of the Planning Commission, and former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Government of India. Professor Bhalla was a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Dean, School of Social Sciences, Professor at Punjab University Chandigarh, and an Associate Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Prof. Bhalla is a member of several committees of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Labour and of the Planning Commission. Prof. Bhalla has written, edited or co-authored a large number of books and articles. His recent books are Globalisation and Indian Agriculture (2005), Agriculture and the World Trade Organisation: Indian and French Perspectives (2002), Indian Agriculture—Four Decades of Development (2001), Suicides in Rural Punjab (1998), The Impact of GATT on Punjab Agriculture (1996), Economic Liberalisation and Indian Agriculture (1994), World Economy in Transition: An Indian Perspective (1994), Patterns in Indian Agricultural Development: A District Level Study (1989) and Green Revolution and the Small Peasant: A Study of Income Distribution among the Punjab Cultivators (1983).

Pratap S. Birthal is presently working as a Senior Scientist at the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi. He has published profusely on issues related to animal husbandry, agricultural diversification and vertical coordination. He has twice been awarded with D.K. Desai Prize by the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics for his quality contribution to agricultural economics research. He is also a recipient of the Young Scientist Award of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Recently he has been awarded with National Fellowship by the ICAR to work on issues related to livestock and poverty. Dr. Birthal has a number of research articles and books to his credit.

Ramesh Chand is currently ICAR National Professor at National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), Pusa, New Delhi. He has worked in senior academic positions as Professor and Head, Agricultural Economics Unit at Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, and Professor of Marketing at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He was Visiting Professor at University of Wollongong, NSW Australia (2000) and Visiting Fellow at Institute of Developing Economies, Chiba Shi, Japan (2003). His Ph.D. thesis, submitted to Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, was selected for Jawaharlal Nehru Award of Indian Council of Agricultural Research in recognition of its outstanding Research contributions. Dr. Chand has worked as consultant for FAO, ESCAP, OECD, World Bank, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and Government of Punjab. At present he is engaged in research on Trade Liberalisation, WTO and Asian Agriculture, Food Policy and Development Economics.
Dr. Chand is author of 7 books and 60 research papers published in reputed national and international journals.

R.S. Deshpande is currently Professor and Head of the Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation (ADRT) Unit of the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. He has served on various policy bodies of Government of India and Government of Karnataka. He has to his credit 8 books and 50 research studies. He has published extensively on Agricultural Development, WTO and its impact on Agriculture, Droughts and Drought Mitigation, Farmers’ Movements, Irrigation and Watershed Development.

M. Indira is currently working as Reader in the Department of Economics at University of Mysore, Mysore. She has obtained a Doctorate from University of Mysore through Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. Her interest areas include Plantation Crops, Gender Studies, Micro-Finance and development of Indian Agriculture. She has published over 50 research articles in international and Indian journals, and completed over a dozen research projects.

Dayanatha Jha was Director of the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi. After relinquishing office of the Director, he was awarded National Professorship of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. He has worked for more than a decade with the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. His contributions are in the area of agricultural research and development policy. He presided over annual conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics in 2001.

R.L. Jogi is Research Associate at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur. He has over 22 years of experience in development studies. His field of specialisation is rural and agricultural economics. He has published several papers in reputed journals.

P.K. Joshi is presently Director of the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi. Prior to this he has served as South Asia Coordinator/Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC; Principal Scientist and Theme Leader (Technology Policy) at NCAP; and Senior Economist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh. He is a member of several government and non-government committees and working groups. He is also member of the executive committees and editorial boards of reputed professional societies. Dr. Joshi is a prolific writer and has a number of research articles both in the national and international journals, and books to his credit.

Suresh Pal is Principal Scientist at the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi. His research interest is agricultural science and technology policy with special emphasis on investment, IPRs, seed industry and research investment allocations and impacts. He has published research papers in the journal of national and international repute. He has been consultatnt to several international organisations like centres of CGIAR, World Bank etc. He has co-edited the books Institutional Change in Indian Agriculture and Impact of Agricultural Research:Post-green Revolution Evidence from India.

Sushil Pandey is a Senior Agricultural Economist and Deputy Head of the Social Sciences Division at the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. His professional areas of expertise include agricultural research and development, institutional aspects of natural resource management, and policy analysis. In addition to this broad area, his research has focused on micro-economic analysis of farmers’ livelihood systems in unfavourable rainfed rice environments, risk coping mechanisms, constraints to technology adoption, and the dynamics of land use changes. He has co-authored/edited five books and has published over 50 research papers and book chapters.

Rajeswari S. Raina is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Her research interest is in the area of science and innovation policy relevant to agricultural and rural development. Her recent publications analyse features of and lessons from successful innovation systems, contest the notion of political neutrality of science, emphasise the need to distinguish between institutional and organisational change in the agricultural sciences, and highlight the role of professional associations in fostering better practices and policies for effective utilisation of knowledge in developing countries. She is an agricultural science graduate with a Ph.D. in economics (Kerala University, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum).

K. Prathap Reddy is the former Director of IRMA. He specialised in the areas of Organisational Behaviour, Strategic Management, and Human Resource Development. Prof. Reddy has published a large number of papers in various Indian journals. Prof. Reddy worked for a fairly long period at the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad. Prof. Reddy has done consulting work for FAO, ILO-COOPNET, World Bank, NDDB, and a large number of co-operatives and development organisations in India.

Sukhpal Singh is faculty member with the CMA, IIM, Ahmedabad. He teaches and trains in agribusiness management and has research interests in vertical co-ordination of agribusiness chains and their governance, contract farming and franchising, presently researching small farmer participation in global food and fibre chains including organic produce. He has to his credit three books and several research papers and articles. He has been a visiting fellow at the IDS, Sussex (UK), and the Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (Thailand). He is a member of the working group, of the NDC on contract farming policy and, of the Planning Commission on agricultural marketing infrastructure policy for the 11th Five-year Plan.

G. Sridhar is pursuing his Fellowship in Rural Management at Institute of Rural Management, Anand. His area of interest is Rural Marketing. He has two years of experience in sales in Marico Industries Limited and two and half years of experience as Faculty in Marketing at Institute for Technology and Management, Warangal. He has published papers in national and international journals of repute. He was part of a consulting team to study Leadership sponsored by Wharton School of Business, USA.

Rasheed Sulaiman V. is Director, Centre for Research on Innovation and Science Policy, (CRISP) Hyderabad, and Director for the LINK South Asia Rural Innovation Policy Studies Hub. Previously he was Senior Scientist at the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), New Delhi. His work focuses on institutional change and poverty relevance with respect to agricultural research and extension. Since 1999, he has been working on the development and application of the innovation systems concepts to explain and plan interventions for agricultural research and rural development. His recent studies focus on understanding innovation capacity in various rural sub-sectors and the role of civil society organisations in promoting pro-poor rural innovation. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Extension from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

L. Velasco is an assistant scientist at the International Rice Research Institute. Her field of expertise is Statistics and data management. She has co-authored over a dozen reports on the economics of rice production systems covering aspects of technology adoption, risk analysis, and livelihood systems in rainfed areas