Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee has a Master’s degree in Agricultural Science from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and a PhD from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Birmingham, UK. He has taken public policy courses at University of Toronto; Civil Services College, Singapore; and University of Cambridge at various points in his career.
Dr Padhee joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1996 and belongs to Odisha cadre. He has experience of more than two decades in public administration and policy making, besides heading India country office of an international agricultural research organisation (ICRISAT) for last three years. Among the various positions he has held are District Magistrate and Collector; Director, Agriculture and Food Production; Revenue Divisional Commissioner; Chief Administrator, Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri; Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Tourism and Culture Department, Odisha and Joint Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Government of India. During his tenure with the Odisha Government, he was instrumental in drafting the Odisha State Agriculture Policy in 2008. He has also served as a member of the Technical Support Group of the erstwhile Planning Commission that prepared the District Agricultural Plan manual. Government of India appointed Dr Padhee as the first Nodal Officer to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in fertilizers.
Among the notable awards and citations Dr Padhee has received during his career in the Civil Services are the Best Collector award (2003-04) and the National Award for contribution to humanitarian services given by the Indian Red Cross Society (2006-07). He was the Indian Co-chair of the Sub-Group on Fertilizers of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation in October 2015. He was awarded the AIASA National Award for outstanding Leadership in Agriculture for the year 2016. He has recently been included as a member of the National Advisory Panel on Agri-Nutrition under POSHAN Abhiyaan. Dr Padhee regularly writes popular articles/OpEds around issues related to Climate Change; Agriculture and food policies.
