Bijaya Kumar Nayak

Dr. Bijaya Kumar Nayak is a development practitioner, researcher, and author with more than fifteen years of professional experience in rural development, tribal livelihoods, agroecology, food and nutrition security, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture. He holds a doctorate in Development Studies from Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS), Bhubaneswar, with a specialisation in millet-based agroecological systems and tribal livelihoods in Odisha. Dr. Nayak has worked with leading national and international development organisations, contributing to programmes on livelihoods, natural resource management, nutrition, community institutions, climate adaptation, and tribal development across Odisha and several other states of India. He played an important role in the implementation and scaling-up of millet-based development initiatives under the various millet missions through regional and international projects on small millets.

An internationally trained development professional, Dr. Nayak is a recipient of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) and participated in the international short-term course on Climate Change Adaptation in Food Security and Natural Resource Management at Makerere University, Uganda, Africa. Dr. Nayak has published numerous research papers, policy briefs, book chapters, success stories, and technical reports on millets, agroecology, community seed systems, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, tribal livelihoods, and sustainable development. His work has been presented at national and international conferences and has contributed to policy discussions on millet promotion, food security, and climate-resilient agriculture. He is an Amazon Bestseller for his book “The Fortunate Love”. He currently lives in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.