STUDENTS

 ​Sreejith Aravindakshan (PhD Candidate)

I am a CIMMYT consultant and a PhD Candidate in Farming Systems Ecology (Wageningen University and Research Centre). I am broadly trained as an interdisciplinary researcher integrating economic and agronomic methods with statistical computing and data analytics. I have successfully led interdisciplinary research in Bangladesh using econometrics and mathematical programing models (Aravindakshan et al., 2015; Aravindakshan et al. 2018), and hold four master Degrees. ​ My PhD research employs panel data models, Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, choice experiments and Farm Optimization models to investigate farmers’ past practices and future preferences for sustainable intensification practices in population dense coastal Bangladesh as a case to address the core challenge of food security and environmental quality in developing countries.

I have around 15 years of work experience (both research and development) in the field of agriculture, environment, ecology and allied sectors in planning, implementing and monitoring environment development projects for government and NGOs in South Asia, Middle East and Europe (which includes CIMMYT, JICA, WWF, Government of Kerala (India) , Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (UAE) etc.). Besides, possess diverse work experience in academia which includes associating with projects funded by EU, USAID and German, Danish and Dutch universities. 

I met Tim in 2012 since then he has been a tremendous mentor and a remarkable research supervisor for me. When it comes to interdisciplinary research I owe most that I know to Tim. He has shown great curiosity and even greater responsibility to my research, and guided me towards the right path whenever I felt lost. His advice on science writing and interdisciplinary methods has helped me author a number of highly-relevant publications in high impact peer-reviewed journals, all of which are also useful in guiding the implementation of CIMMYT’s extension work in the field in South Asia. I am really fortunate to have him as my supervisor and co-author.

ResearchGate: click here. 
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​Rachel Voss (PhD Candidate)

I’m a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where my studies focus on rural Senegal as a site of change. My dissertation research draws from development geography, agroecology, and feminist political ecology to explore three topics.

​First, I’m comparing the adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations in response to ICT-enabled extension and social learning, with particular attention to how women engage with and benefit from these tools. I’m also documenting farmer adaptation of introduced technologies after the conclusion of a participatory trial focused on improved seeds and organic and inorganic fertilizers. Finally, I’m comparing households’ and individuals’ adaptive responses to climate stress and socioeconomic change, with a focus on gender, livelihood diversification, and migration. I’m exploring these topics using a mixture of individual and household surveys, interviews and focus groups, and participatory methods to build an understanding not only of farmer behavior, but the complex drivers and constraints that underpin farmer decision-making in Senegal. 

Tim has been a great mentor – even from a distance, he is attentive, dedicated, and quick to send written feedback or arrange a Skype call. His experience and insights make him a fantastic source of knowledge, both as I develop and implement my research plans and as I think through my next professional steps.

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Shah-Al-Emran (PhD Candidate)

I joined in the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as a PhD fellow in 2016 under the Lee Rice Scholarship program supported by the International Rice Research Institute. My research focuses on the optimizing the efficiency of different cereal systems to ensuring food security in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. I graduated from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University with a Master of Science in Agronomy. My MSc. Research focused on “Source-sink manipulation and population density effects on green fodder and grain yield in hybrid maize”.  I ultimately imaging I will move into international agricultural research and contribute to the advancement of agronomic science using tools such as remote sensing and advanced data analytics.

Prior to starting my PhD research, I worked as an Agricultural Development Officer for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Bangladesh where I gained considerable experience in conducting field experiments while managing trials under CIMMYTs research program. Soil nutrient management, irrigation scheduling, remote sensing and use of unmanned aerial vehicles, small-farm mechanization, and integrated and intensified crop production are areas I consider myself to be proficient in. My current research interests are in crop​ modeling and life cycle assessments, remote sensing, sustainable agriculture practices and adaptation to future climate scenarios. As one of my thesis research supervisors, I have benefited greatly from Tim's advice, guidance, patience, insights, and consistent challenge to improve my work.

Wolfram J. Simon (MSc. Candidate)

I am originally from Switzerland, and after my apprenticeship as organic farmer in Switzerland, I continued my professional education with a Bachelor's degree in Germany and a Master's of Science at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. My master thesis was supervised by Timothy J. Krupnik, Jeroen Groot and Norman Aguilar at the plant research group of Farming Systems Ecology (FSE) at Wageningen University and Research (WUR). Thesis fieldwork was conducted in Bangladesh and provided me an excellent opportunity to explore the world of agricultural research in the tropics. In the context of improving weather resilience, I was lucky enough to conduct fascinating research on social network structures and the relation of access to weather and market information on farm characteristics, selling price and yield performance. To collect the required data, Tim provided me with excellent infrastructure and a wonderful team that supported my fieldwork with great effort and dedication. Six enumerators from the local university were hired and conducted interviews with 300 farmers in three different clusters. With our motorbikes, we then took mung bean yield samples from all the farmers previously interviewed. This provided a profound connection with local farmers which I truly enjoyed.

I vividly remember all these memorable moments during my fieldwork with my colleagues and friends, picking mung beans, waiting for the tropical storms to pass, riding the motor bike on the clayey paths, and just meeting all these fascinating people in this unique landscape and culture. I truly want to thank Tim for his great support, leadership and trust he put into my work. I felt fully supported and highly appreciated. His sense of observing group dynamics and reacting to adversity were very inspiring to me. 
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Muhammad Arshad (PhD Completed)

Following my thesis research across Pakistan, I earned a PhD degree in Agricultural Economics from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany in May, 2017. Prior to this, I was a research assistant at the Socio-economic institute, Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg, Germany from February, 2012 to May, 2017. During my PhD field research work, I investigated the impacts of climate change on Pakistani farming systems in consideration of bot agronomic and economic performance, by employing statistical and econometric methods. My dissertation, which Tim was an advisor on, was titled “Multidimensional impacts of climate change and climate variability on farming systems in Pakistan: Implications for adaptation and sustainable rural development”.

I am now working as a post-doctoral scientist at the Socio-economic institute, Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg, Germany. My current research project focuses more broadly on the social, economic and human face of climate change in developing countries. My key research interests include agricultural economics, climate change and agriculture, the economics of climate change, climate change and economic development, and development economics.​

​Tim was a tremendous advisor for me. His guidance on both my doctoral research work – especially the development of creditable papers, which have now all been published – as well as on my further research and scientific career have been invaluable. Additionally he has encouraged me to pursue my ideas ultimately impacting on my growth as a research scientist.

Md. Shahin Alam (MSc. Completed)

Research! I understood the real meaning of research at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), The Netherlands. I was first admitted as a MSc. student in the Department of Animal Science. I undertook specialization ‘Global and Sustainable Production’ under the ‘Animal Production Systems’ Chair group. I took relevant courses and learned about modeling. As a consequence, I did my major thesis on ‘Impact of dry period length on farm income – including cow health and veterinary costs’ using R.

After this, I sought a minor thesis position in the same chair group. Luckily or unluckily, I could not find a viable position. A friend conversely suggested I contact Dr. Jeroen Groot. Associate Professor in the Chair group of Farming System Ecology (FSE), WUR. Although I have not taken significant coursework under FSE chair group, he allowed me to do minor thesis under his supervision. This due to my previous knowledge on modeling. Based on a number of previous collaborations, Jeroen put me in touch with the with International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) , and I began working with Dr. Timothy J. Krupnik and his team. Tim, Jeroen and I developed my thesis topic and I focused in on ‘Alternative feeding options to enhance the sustainability of dairy farms in Bangladesh’ using different data collection and systems modeling tools, including FarmDESIGN, the Feed Assessment Tool  (FEAST)  and COWEL.

I worked with Tim’s team in three districts  in 2018. The cooperation and help of the team was a key ingredient in my success. I have to acknowledge the Department of Livestock Services.  I also have to recognize the help of my beloved wife and agricultural economist Shanjida Sharmin Shama, for her intellectual participation in my research by helping with field data collection and processing during. Ialso wish to express my appreciation to Tim as my mentor and supervisor. In my seven years of previous work in Bangladesh as a student and researcher, I had not experienced anything like the dedication and enthusiasm of  CIMMYT’s staff and team. Thanks goes to Tim for assisting in making my field work possible through the collaboration of this team and arranging all things needed, in addition to intellectual support and encouragement. 

Md. Mamunur Rashid Sarker (MSc. completed)

The main objective of my thesis, which I completed under the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University, was is to assess the trade-offs in rice residue used as feed vs. mulch under Conservation Agriculture (CA) in the South West of Bangladesh. I examined the determinants governing crop residue use for feeding livestock and soil fertility improvement and outlined implications for the expansion of conservation agricultural practices in rice – maize rotational systems. Moreover, my work also made use of multiple crop and climate models, and presented simulated effects of climate change on rice and maize yields comparing standard farmers’ practices, as measured in participatory experiments, to the use of CA practices beyond the year 2030. I also explored the implications of these systems on diffferent farm types. The Farm Design Model (Groot et al., 2012) was used to assess carbon, nutrient, feed, labour and farm income balances at the farm level for representative farms and specific scenarios identified as relevant to this research.
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It is my great pleasure to work with Dr. Timothy Krupnik, who was my main supervisor in Bangladesh for my research work thesis. The title of this work was “Trade-off analysis of crop residues use in smallholder mixed crop – livestock systems to support more effective use of conservation agriculture (CA) in ‘South Western’ Bangladesh”. With Tim’s guidance, I was put into a self-oriented research situation under which I helped manage experiments, did surveys, and conducted detailed multi-variate and modeling analysis of the data. During my entire period of my work, I Tim to be dedicated to innovation, personal growth and meaningful assistance of me as a student. These led me to conduct an original research and use critical thinking as an independent researcher.

Anton Urfels ​(MSc. completed)​

I met Tim when I was reaching out for thesis opportunities during my MSc program in International Land and Water Management at Wageningen University. My research interests circle around the topics of water, agriculture, climate change, sustainable development and complexity. For my thesis, I set out to the South-Western plains of Nepal (the Terai) to conduct a comparative case study on farmer’s decision-making on investment in and utilization of shallow tube well (STW) irrigation using semi-quantitative ethnographic decision-trees placed within rapid appraisal accounts. The study concluded that there is ample space for efficiency gains in the STW sector. As STWs are currently the main technological interface of the water-food-energy nexus, realizing such efficiency gains would free up valuable resources in the nexus. Furthermore, policies to address these efficiency deficiencies need to take into account the (irrigation) development trajectories unique to each district as they amplify different bottlenecks within the STW sector that subsequently render case specific sets of policies more effective. Working with Tim as an academic supervisor was great as he decidedly supported my strong interest in conducting high quality research that directly contributes to development practice. 
 
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Sumona Shahrin (MSc. completed)

I finished MSc in Farming Systems Ecology  in 2016 at the Wageningen University, Netherlands. My research interests are in agroecology and sustainable farming systems, as well as in crop intensification in developing countries. I completed my thesis at the Farming Systems Ecology Group, Wageningen University while doing field work with Tim and at CIMMYT Bangladesh. The title of my project was “Fuzzy cognitive mapping to capture farmers’ perceptions on the realities, constraints, and opportunities associated with surface water irrigation-based crop intensification in Southern Bangladesh”.

​The objectives of the project were to identify farm typologies and explain different types of farmers’ perceptions of their farming systems, the constraints, and opportunities in different farms for sustainable intensification of cereal based farming systems in south-central Bangladesh, with a focus on surface water irrigation management for crop intensification. I worked in six villages and surveyed over 240 farmers. We used the survey data for farm typological analysis and fuzzy cognitive mapping of farmers’ perceptions of their farming systems.

​Methodologically, I made use of  Principal Component and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis in  R,  as well as use of ‘Mental Modeler’ and ‘FuzzyDANCES’ software. I was lucky to have a supervisor such as Tim who cared so much about my work, and taught me how to complete a quality interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research project. His cordial guidance, advice, patience, and encouragement helped to accomplish my research successfully.