FAS Team Visits IWMI India
A team from the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) visited the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in New Delhi on 1 April, 2025, as part of the projects funded by the CGIAR-Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA), “The Dynamics of Agricultural Innovation in North India” and “The Dynamics of Agricultural Innovation in South India.” The FAS team, comprising Dr. Sandipan Baksi (co-principal investigator), Dr. Tapas S. Modak (project manager), and Sai Chandan Kotu (research assistant), aimed to document the innovations undertaken by IWMI in India over the last 20 years.
IWMI, founded in 1984 and headquartered in Sri Lanka, is a CGIAR centre with a focus on water management. IWMI has been in the forefront of water science research and is a part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land, and Ecosystems. It has been working in India for more than two decades now, with its India Office located in the National Agricultural Science Complex in New Delhi. IWMI in India works in close collaboration with partners from India’s National Agricultural Research and Extension System (NARES), private sector stakeholders, and NGOs.
The FAS team had in-depth discussions with Dr. Alok Sikka, IWMI’s Country Representative for India and Bangladesh, who provided an overview of IWMI’s work and major innovations in India and assured their institutional support for the two projects. During the visit, the team also engaged with Dr. Deepak Varshney, Regional Researcher-Impact Assessment. The team was apprised about IWMI’s key research areas in India, as well as the senior personnel and scientific staff leading these initiatives.
The visit provided the team with valuable insights that will help shape the project’s future direction, while the interaction and the exchange of relevant materials are expected to meaningfully support the ongoing exercise.