Tuesday, March 10th, 2015 
1:10 PM, 2045 Bainer Hall 

Topic: "Model for Enhancing Water Sustainability in Rainfed Regions" 

Speaker: Dr. Pramod Pandey 
Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, 
UC Cooperative Extension, University of California Davis 

Abstract 
Crop production in rainfed land is crucial for meeting the global food demand. Rainfed crops contribute approximately 60-70% to the world crop production. Currently in many regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, rainfed farming is crucial for total GDP. Despite considerable contribution to the GDP, rainfed farming suffers mainly due to water deficit during dry seasons. Rainwater savings in farm-scale reservoirs has a potential to increase crop yields in rainfed regions significantly, and support rural community sustainability. In this study, a model capable of estimating rainwater harvesting potential for agricultural purposes was developed. The model predicts the supplemental irrigation (SI) requirement of rainfed crops and water availability. The tool developed here can be potentially useful in designing a farm-scale reservoir system for water recycling and enhancing crop production in rainfed regions, hence enhancing water sustainability. 

Short Biography of the Speaker 
Dr. Pramod Pandey is working as a specialist in Population Health and Reproduction Department at University of California, Davis, USA. His research focus is water resources management, and controlling microbial pollution of animal waste for protecting public health. He has done extensive field scale and modeling research on understanding stream water quality, animal waste treatment, watershed hydrology, water harvesting, and renewable energy production from animal waste. He has developed models for improving water sustainability in rural communities of humid and arid regions. 

Coffee and cookies will be served.