Pooja Prasad

Biography

Pooja Prasad is a post-doctoral researcher in the  Department of Land and Water Management at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Her research focus is water and agriculture for food security in water-scarce, semi-arid regions of  Asia and Africa. Her specific research interests include: agricultural water management in drylands, farmer-led irrigation, climate adaptation, social-ecological systems thinking and system dynamic modeling.

Pooja's postdoctoral research explores the application of adaptive investment pathways approach in the context of smallholder farmer-led irrigation along the sand-river aquifers of Kenya. Her research is part of the Nature Based Water Infrastructure for Global Goals (NaBWIG) project.  

Her teaching supports courses in irrigation management, specifically on social-ecological systems view of irrigation, and on research design. She is also involved in the mentoring of MSc students at IHE. 

Pooja holds a Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India (2019). Her thesis, which received the Excellence in Ph.D. research award for the period 2018-2020 from IIT Bombay, focuses on social-ecological systems analysis of agricultural intensification in the drought-prone regions of Maharashtra, India. The thesis contributed to the Government of Maharashtra Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture (PoCRA) that is implemented in 15 vulnerable districts of the state. Prior to this, Pooja worked as a researcher in the drinking water group at CTARA IIT Bombay where she analyzed socio-economic and technical causes for rural drinking water stress in the region. Pooja has a Masters’ degree from Stanford University and a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay. 

Publications

JOURNALS:

• Duker A.E.C, Karimba B.M., Wani G.E., Prasad P., van der Zaag P., de Fraiture C. 2022. Security in flexibility: Accessing land and water for irrigation in Kenya’s changing rural environment. Cahiers Agricultures, 31, 7. 
• Karimba, B.M., Duker A.E.C., Prasad, P., Karimi, P., de Fraiture, C., van der Zaag, P. 2022. Irrigation on the move: How transient farming partnerships facilitate booming smallholder irrigation along ephemeral rivers in dryland areas of Kenya. Agricultural Water Management Volume 265, 1 May 2022 
• Prasad, P., Damani, O.P. and Sohoni, M. 2022. How can resource-level thresholds guide sustainable intensification of agriculture at farm level? A system dynamics study of farm-pond based intensification. Agricultural Water Management Volume 264, 30 April 2022
• Prasad, P., and M. Sohoni. 2020. Agricultural intensification and risk in water-constrained hard-rock regions: a social-ecological systems study of horticulture cultivation in western India. Ecology and Society 25(4):2. 
• Prasad, P. , Mishra, V. and Sohoni, M. 2014. Reforming rural drinking water schemes: The case of Raigad district in Maharashtra. Economic and Political Weekly, May 10 2014, Vol XLIX No 19

   

CONFERENCES:

• Prasad P., Karimi P., Kiptala J., Mwangi M., Yazew E., van der Zaag P. July 2020. Adaptive investment pathway for farmer security: group modeling of sand river based social-ecological systems of Eastern Africa. The 37th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society (online) Bergen, Norway
• Prasad, P. and Sohoni, M. Aug 2018. Farmponds for Horticulture: Boon or Curse? Analysing Impact on Farm Profitability, Resource Sustainability and Social Welfare. The 36th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Reykjavik, Iceland
• Prasad, P. and Sohoni, M. Dec 2013. Rural drinking water schemes in Maharashtra: problems and opportunities. International Conference on the Political economy of Water: A Social work response; Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai

TECHNICAL NOTES:

• Belsare, H., Prasad, P. and Sohoni M. 2018. A note on water balance computation for use in climate-resilient agriculture and village level water conservation planning. Technical concept note submitted to the Johny Joseph Committee, Government of Maharashtra