Bhubaneswar, 19 September 2026: ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management (ICAR-IIWM), Bhubaneswar successfully organized a six-day training programme on “Application of Geospatial Tools, Models, and AI/ML Techniques in Agricultural Water Management” during 14-19 September 2026 at the Institute in hybrid mode. A total of 16 participants including 5 women attended the programme. The six-day programme comprised expert lectures, demonstrations and intensive hands-on practical sessions on a wide range of emerging topics, including Google Earth Engine, Google Colab, Python programming, GeoAI for precision agriculture, soil-moisture mapping, microwave remote sensing, AI/ML applications in agricultural water management, digital soil mapping, AI-based irrigation scheduling, flood and water-body assessment, mobile-based micro-irrigation scheduling, IoT and Agentic AI, and multi-sensor remote sensing for dynamic soil-moisture mapping. Eminent experts from ICAR-IIWM, ICAR-IARI, ICAR-IISWC, ICAR-NBSS&LUP, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, and Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi delivered lectures and conducted practical sessions. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. A. Sarangi, Director, ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar, whereas the valedictory session was graced by Prof. Aswini Kumar Nanda, Chair Professor, Technology Innovation Hub (TIH), IIT Guwahati. The programme provided a valuable platform for researchers, academicians and scholars to interact with experts and gain practical exposure to state-of-the-art digital tools. The training programme was coordinated by Dr. R. K. Jena, Dr. Ankita Jha, Dr. P. Deb Roy and Mr. B. Behera, Scientists of ICAR-IIWM, Bhubaneswar.
