Integrating Sustainable Tech for Energy, Water and Food in Smallholder Communities
Abstract
Solar energy with agrivoltaics, micro-irrigation and crop diversification offers compelling opportunities to enhance food production, farm revenue and adaptation to climate change in smallholder communities in India and elsewhere. A key aspect is the integration of new sustainable technologies that allow for a more optimized use of land, water and human resources to the benefit of local communities. Our team established a member-based system in a small village in Bihar, India, including solar panels, groundwater access and micro-irrigation. A farmer-based cooperative arrangement instigated cropping innovations and other local adaptations that facilitated multiple benefits.
Speakers
Dr. Milorad Plavsic
Dr. Milorad Plavsic is TCI’s manager for strategic initiatives. Before joining TCI, Misha worked as a food system challenge manager at the Global Challenges Research Fund at UK Research and Innovation. His work experience also includes roles at the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra), where he worked in the better regulation team, and in the Ministry of Agriculture of Serbia, where he worked in the IPARD Managing Authority. Misha holds a PhD in agricultural and food economics and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Reading in the UK, as well as a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Novi Sad in Serbia.
Dr. Harold van Es
Dr. Harold van Es is a professor of soil and water management and former chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell University. He received degrees from the University of Amsterdam, Iowa State University, and North Carolina State University. He works on approaches to precision soil management, with current emphases on soil health, a computational tool for precision nitrogen management (Adapt-N) that was recently commercialized, and space-time statistics. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed papers and chapters, co-authored a widely read book on sustainable soil management, developed numerous extension articles and videos, and advised 47 graduate students. He teaches an undergraduate course in Soil and Crop Management for Sustainability and a graduate course in Space-Time Statistics. He is the president-elect and a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and also a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.
Registration
Date & time
Monday, Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. ET/7:30 p.m. IST