CGIAR Research Program Directors

Bas Bouman’s research has focused on improving water productivity and saving water in rice production at spatial scale levels from field to irrigation systems. His research activities have also included developing novel water-saving irrigation technologies such as alternate wetting and drying and aerobic rice; designing and executing field experiments and data collection programs; organizing participatory research among research partners in Asia; organizing and convening international workshops and meetings; developing and organizing training courses on water management and crop growth modelling; project leader of various externally-funded projects on water management in rice; project proposal development; and leading a group of national staff; giving scientific guidance to international PhD students.

Bas Bouman graduated with a Bachelors (1984) and Masters (1987) degree in ‘Civil Engineering/Irrigation and Drainage’ at Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands. His Ph D degree (1991) focused on remote sensing and crop modelling for yield prediction, also from the Wageningen Agricultural University.

From 1987 to 1996, Bas Bouman worked at the Research Institute for Agrobiology and Soil Fertility (AB-DLO, former CABO) in Wageningen in the field of agro-ecology, specializing in remote sensing, crop and water balance modelling and systems analysis. He then worked at the Wageningen Agricultural University and the Centre for Research and Education in Tropical Agriculture (CATIE) in Costa Rica on land use analysis and livestock system optimization from 1996 to 1998. Since 1999, Bas Bouman worked as senior water scientist at the International Rice Research Institute. In 2004-2006, he was employed as the Theme Leader Crop productivity of the CGIAR Challenge Program Water and Food. From 2007, he became head of the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) Crop and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD), and since 2008, Leader of IRRI’s Intensive Rice Production Systems program.