The World Food Prize Foundation on Tuesday presented Swati Nayak with the Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. Nayak was recognized for her innovative approach to engaging farmers in demand-driven rice seed systems, from testing and deployment to access and adoption of climate-resilient and nutritious rice varieties. Nayak led the first dedicated initiative for women farmers approved by the Indian Cabinet. She collaborated with 10 Indian states to establish a national program from scratch, and her work laid the foundation for the program to benefit 4 million women farmers to date. Nayak joined the International Rice Research Institute in 2013, providing leadership in numerous global programs on rice and rice-based food systems. She is the global lead for Rice and co-lead for Cereal Seed Systems under the initiative Seed Equal of CGIAR, a worldwide research partnership focused on agricultural food systems. Nayak has organized more than 10,000 extensive on-farm testings for more than 500 rice varieties, working with thousands of smallholder farmers in countries across Asia and Africa.