Dr. Ravi Khetarpal, Executive Secretary, APAARI, has assumed the position of Chair of the Tropical Agricultural Platform (TAP) hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) effective on 14 July 2020. TAP has been promoting capacity development for strengthened agricultural innovation system (AIS) in the tropics, and APAARI has been its active member since its inception. Until recently, Dr. Khetarpal was a member of the TAP Steering Committee and the Vice Chair since December 2019.

Initiated by the G20 in 2012, and also endorsed by the G8 leadership and generously supported by the European Union, TAP focuses on the development of national capacities for agricultural innovation in the tropics, where most of the developing countries are located and the capacity gap is especially wide. By helping to bridge the capacity gap, TAP aims to pave the way for agricultural innovations that meet the demands of its principal users – small farmers, small and medium-sized agribusinesses and consumers.

To achieve these goals, TAP has embraced the so-called Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) perspective, acting as a multilateral dynamic facilitation mechanism that enables better coherence and greater impact of Capacity Development (CD) interventions in AIS.