Petra Schmitter, Ph.D

Petra Schmitter, is a Principal Researcher at the International Water Management Institute and leads the Research Group on Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Pathways. Her main research focusses on developing suitable water solutions for smallholder farmers to improve their agricultural resilience in irrigated and rainfed cropping systems and to assess the impact of scaling those solutions on water resource availability and quality at different scales. Over the past 20 years she has mainly worked in interdisciplinary research for development projects in SE Asia, West and East Africa in the field of solar irrigation, water productivity, soil and water management practices, land degradation, crop-water and hydrological modelling. She uses action research approaches when testing and evaluating suitable agricultural water management innovations with smallholder farmers, PhD and Msc. students and uses the field and modelling evidence to drive changes in policy and development programs in the Global South. She has ample experiences in working on complex interdisciplinary programs across Africa with research, public and private sector partners to drive impact. She has more than 100 publications and contributed to book chapters around climate smart solutions to improve agricultural production and water management.