Bhabani Sankar Das

Biography

Professor, Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur.

Research Interest

We focus on improving water and nutrient efficiency in soils using intensive measurement and modeling. Specifically, we work on water and solute transport; use of visible, near-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy for rapid assessment of soil, crop and water quality; hyperspectral remote sensing and environmental pollution and contaminant hydrology. Over the years, we have produced some interesting results: A. We conducted a series of flow and transport studies in rice fields over a decade to show that preferential flow of water is a major menace in ponded rice fields. We have shown that plugging such flow paths can reduce water use to almost at the levels of consumptive use. B. Flow and transport experiments have helped us establish that the polymer coating may be a smart option for improving use effiencincy of nitrogen in rice fields. But one must have a control over water use; otherwise, the use of such smart fertilizers only would be more expensive than conventional fertilizers. C. We have shown that soil hydrauic properties and aggregate size distributions may be used to upscale soil response. D. Our experimental and modeling work have shown that water stress at vegetative growth stages may be controlled to create yield advantage (Dasgupta et al., 2015) E. We have developed spectral algorithms to rapidly assess several soil properties such as water holding capacity, aggregate size distribution, weathering indices, Atterberg limits, and nutrient contents. F. We have also shown that the VNIR technology may also be used for assessing tea quality.