Research Projects
Changing Irrigation Practices and Emerging Sustainability Challenges in South Bihar, India (Completed)
This research work engaged with sustainability challenges emerging due to changing agricultural patterns, specifically irrigation practices (shift from surface based indigenous system to canal based irrigation and more recent dependence on ground water) in South Bihar, India. It tried to problematise the “science based” “expert” led understanding of “sustainability” that is pushed through policy discourses at national and international fora and attempted to situate the ideas of “sustainability” in the ground realities of socio-economic transformation happening at the local and regional level. In addition, it explored the multiple framing of “sustainability” related challenges by different actors (primarily farmers and labourers at the grassroots level and policy makers and academicians at the international and national level).
Aquifer Characterization, Artificial Recharge and Reuse of Suddenly Available Water in South Bihar (Completed)
ASRA (Aquifer Storage & Recovery for Sustainable Agriculture) project was funded by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia. The objective of this project was to test a model of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) technology using seasonal floodwaters in the region of South Bihar - a drought-prone region. The goal of the project was to provide the opportunity to farmers of the region to raise their incomes from agriculture and allied activities through assured irrigation from the reuse of water stored beneath the surface during drought. The work primarily involved aquifer mapping, assessment of social perception about technology adoption and study of environmental risks emerging due to groundwater depletion.