Bio

Sheetal Sharma is Head of Innovation and Carbon Projects at Rize, where she leads the strategy and execution of climate innovation and carbon programmes to transform rice-based agrifood systems. With over 17 years of experience in agricultural research, innovation and development, including a career as a Senior Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), she brings a unique blend of scientific expertise, strategic leadership and experience translating innovation into scalable, real-world impact.

At Rize, Sheetal drives the development and scaling of climate-smart agriculture solutions, rice-methane reduction programmes and carbon projects, working across technology, farmer adoption, carbon finance and strategic partnerships. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between innovation and implementation—building models that deliver measurable climate impact while creating economic value for farmers and strengthening the resilience of agricultural value chains.

She is recognised for her work on using ICT-enabled decision-support tools to improve rice farming practices at scale, In 2017, she received the Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers 

She is passionate about leveraging technology, science, finance and cross-sector collaboration to accelerate the transition towards low-carbon, resilient and inclusive rice-agrifood systems.