Aravazhi Selvaraj
India Country Director
South Asia/Central Asia
Master of Business Management (Agribusiness), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
Market & business research, Value chain interventions, Institutional agribusiness projects
Aravazhi Selvaraj joined WorldVeg in Oct, 2023 as India Country Director in its South Asia / Central Asia Regional Office. He earlier was the CEO of the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). He has Project Management experience of 22 years in the agribusiness industry and has worked in public and private developmental organizations in India. He has experience in executing institutional and corporate agribusiness and value chain projects in India and 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He has implemented projects of various Ministries and Departments of Govt. of India, State Governments, and International donors like DANIDA, FARA, InfoDev-World Bank, and Walmart Foundation.
He has worked for the development of macro to micro level projects for farmer communities, commodity value chains, commercialization of nutritious food products of coarse cereals in tribal communities for dietary diversity, and establishment of primary processing centers for various crops on community-based operational models. He has worked in the areas of agribusiness incubation, start-up financing, project/program planning and management, innovative technology funding, impact assessment study, and development of sustainable agribusiness models. He is a postgraduate in Business Management with specialization in agribusiness and has done his Bachelor of Science (Agriculture).