Dr Niranjan Panigrahi

Background

Niranjan Panigrahi completed his B.S. and M.S. in Botany from the Utkal University of Odisha, India. My specialization in M.S. was 'Biochemistry and molecular biology'. I learn different subjects during my B.S. and M.S., but one subject I found very interesting was crop production systems and its adaptation to different abiotic stress. This interest led me to pursue Master of Technology in Agricultural Systems and Management at IIT Kharagpur, India. My Mtech. Dissertation topic was 'Linkage of agricultural farmland and river run-off nutrients (phosphorous) with macrophytes proliferation in Chilika lagoon'. The idea was to look for a relationship among all the catchment specific end members and their interaction in a catchment based wetland systems.

I decided to pursue a PhD in the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur. My research work during PhD includes development of field and controlled experiments for collecting crop phenotypic information such as physiological and biochemical changes under water stress using high-end technology such as spectroradiometer. I have expertise on analysing spectral reflectance data for crop phenotyping from a crop canopy data. In addition to that, I have experience in working with crop modelling using DSSAT, machine learning on Matlab and plotting in Sigmaplot software. During my PhD, I have also worked as a teaching assistant for the undergraduates and postgraduates. It has helped me to learn and prepared me for the challenges in my research field.

Niranjan Started his postdoctoral research career at Cranfield University in May 2019.

Research opportunities

Niranjan has been involved with different research projects during his tenure as a research fellow at the School of Water, Energy, and Environment, Cranfield University.

Project 1: Improving irrigation management to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder banana growers in the post-conflict region of Magdalena, Colombia (Innovate UK funding)

Project 2: Innovations in soil and irrigation management to support African vegetable production and rural livelihoods (Innovate UK funding)

Project 3: Development of a rainwater harvesting system design tool for horticultural polytunnels (Kent County Council, UK funding)

Project 4: Green Gold-Blue Water: Managing drought risks in Avocado expansion in Africa (Innovate UK funding)

Project 5: Hydroponic strawberry production - an updated review of water and nitrogen benefits (Speciality Produce Ltd funding)

Project 6: Potential for scaling up indigenous rainwater harvesting techniques in semi-arid regions of India (NERC funding)

Project 7: Supporting transformative adaptation and building equitable resilience to drought for sustainable development (UKRI-GCRF)

Project 8: Climate Change Risk Assessment & Food Security for Israeli Agriculture Sector (Israel Ministry of Agriculture)

Project 9: Prototype Planning Tool for Green Hydrogen Generation and Use in UK Agriculture (Innovate UK)

Project 10: Supporting collaboration through innovative water-sharing tool for high-value irrigated agriculture (Innovate UK)

Clients

• Innovate UK

Publications

• Articles in journals