Yiching Song

Yiching Song, is a member of the IPES-Food panel and a senior researcher in the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and since 2016 is program leader of the United Nations Environment Programme - International Ecosystem Management Partnership in the Chinese Academy of Science. She is also founder and adviser of the China's Farmers' Seed Network. 

She has been a board member of numerous organizations and has lectured at several national academies and universities. She is currently committee member of international networks including Seeds Change, the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP) etc. She has been a consultant for UN instututions including IFAD, FAO, UN-Women, UNEP, as well as the Asian Development Bank and The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

Her expertise focuses on agrobiodiversity, climate change, farmer seeds systems, local food systems, women's empowerment, and integrating community and ecosystem-based climate change adaptations – in China and developing countries of southeast Asia and Africa. Her main research methodology is participatory action research and policy analysis, within complex systems from community to global levels. She has a PhD in rural sociology and development from Wageningen University, Netherlands.