A sustainable intensification of agriculture will require reductions in the use of water, fertilizer and other resources by smallholder farmers. While technologies exist that can preserve yields while reducing these inputs, their adoption in developing countries remains low. What are the barriers to adoption? How can they be overcome? I will review a series of field experiments and studies attempting to answer these questions in India, where overuse of groundwater and nitrogen fertilizers are pervasive and threaten the sustainability of food production.
About Ram Fishman
Ram Fishman is an assistant professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University (currently visiting at Tel Aviv university). Prior to coming to GWU, Ram was a Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ram’s research is focused on sustainable agriculture, water scarcity and climate change, with an emphasis on developing countries. Ram holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University, a M.Sc. in Physics from the Weitzman Institute and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from Tel Aviv University.
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