New Collaboration Agreement between BHU & University of Cambridge
New Collaboration Agreement between BHU & University of Cambridge
Varanasi: Following the initiative taken by Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar under the Institute of Eminence Programme, the Banaras Hindu University and University of Cambridge have recently signed a collaborative agreement under the project ‘Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable Food Supplies (TIGR2ESS)’.
To work on this major multi-disciplinary project, Department of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, BHU will work on its archaeological component under the leadership of Prof. Ravindra Nath Singh as Principal Investigator (India) and Dr. Vikas Kumar Singh as Co-Principal Investigator (India). From University of Cambridge, Dr. Cameron Andrew Petrie will lead the project as Principal Investigator (UK).
The research project is funded by the Research Councils UK (RCUK) – Global Challenges Research Fund (UK). The tenure of Project is from 1st February, 2020 to 30th September, 2021. Under this project, Banaras Hindu University will receive fund approximately Rs.22 Lakh from the University of Cambridge.
New Collaboration Agreement between BHU & University of Cambridge
Prof. RN Singh and Dr. Vikas Kumar Singh explained that, today, large parts of India are intensively farmed, and the large-scale mono-cropping of water intensive crops causing extreme water depletion. Archaeology has the potential to make an important contribution to identifying possible solutions to these circumstances.
They said that the archaeological data indicate a high degree of variability in past crop choices and growing conditions, which appears to have supported sustainable farming systems that were resilient to climate change, and within which diversity may have been encouraged. This project combines archaeological approaches with insights from agronomy and agricultural economics. “We aim to use insights from sustainable agricultural practices from both the archaeological and historical past – in particular the Bronze Age Indus Civilisation in northwest India”, they said.
