On 21 October 2025, ICRISAT scientists took a leading role in the inaugural CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes Webinar, showcasing innovative tools for agricultural water management. The session opened with remarks from Dr Ramesh Singh, Principal Scientist – Landscape Resource Conservation & Cluster Lead, IDC.
Dr Kaushal K Garg, Principal Scientist in Natural Resource Management introduced the Water Impact Calculator (WIC), a tool designed for need-based irrigation scheduling. He explained the critical necessity of precise irrigation, detailed how optimal water amounts are determined, and provided a live demonstration of the tool generating a sample irrigation schedule to improve water use efficiency.
Complementing this, Dr Nagarjuna Reddy Nukala, Associate Scientist in Soil Science, presented a natural resource management tool that connects landscape-level data with on-farm actions. This tool is designed to deliver personalized, plot-level advice to farmers while simultaneously providing policymakers with crucial insights for strategic planning, such as subsidy allocation and resource management.
Dr Aiendrilla Dey, Consultant, Climate Modelling, Regenerative Landscape, concluded the ICRISAT segment by discussing her work on quantifying blue and green water fluxes under climate change using a multi-model approach. The session concluded with a Q&A and closing remarks from Dr Cargele Masso, Principal Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), highlighting the collaborative nature of the CGIAR initiative.
