Padmaja Ravula is a Principal Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). She is an Indian National and has a PhD in Humanities and Social Sciences (Specialization: Sociology) from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B). A Gold Medalist for her Masters Degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Pandit Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University.
She was a Visiting Scientist at Cornell University at the Dyson School of Agriculture and Applied Economics in 2015. She serves as a guest faculty at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for the post Graduate Program on Agri-Food Business, since 2018.
A sociologist by training and education, has an ardent interest in research on gender in agriculture. She has over 25 years of interdisciplinary quantitative and qualitative research experience on issues related gender, nutrition, social capital and empowerment of women, men and communities. She has a unique competence of training in nutrition research as well as sociological research. Her research interests are building the evidence base on gender in agriculture, empowerment of women, using micro-level panel data from India in understanding the agriculture-nutrition linkages in the semi-arid tropics with a gender perspective, and raising the voices of the poor women through data and metrics. Has broad experience working in close collaboration with national and international research institutions, academic institutes, farmers, NGOs, donors and governments. Good team player in multi-disciplinary teams. Well versed with and practitioner of PRA tools and methods. Contributed to development of several research papers and journal articles and impact series, policy briefs, conference papers, edited books, research bulletins and papers in edited books. A Creative thinker, and therefore also interested in bringing out non-conventional/non-academic but interactive products like timelines, video documentaries, visual tools for data collection and analysis.
She has established strategic partnerships with several Institutes and Organizations. Notable among them include GCRF, SLU, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, FAO, Government of Telangana, NIN, PJTSAU, Agricultural Universities, Home Science Colleges, other national and International institutes for pursuing her research activities on gender, nutrition, social capital, social networks, social norms , inclusion, diversity, and capacity building.
Member of several professional bodies including CGIAR Gender impact Platform, Indian Association for Agricultural Economics (AERA) and other online bodies