Pilot Visit to Rural Bihar and Krishi Bhawan, Patna

On January 12, 2026, a team from the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) visited Rajgir, Bihar, as part of the CGIAR–Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA)–funded projects titled “Dynamics of Agricultural Innovation in North India” and “Dynamics of Agricultural Innovation in South India”. The FAS team, comprising Dr. Tapas S. Modak (Project Manager) and Kristy Saikia (Research Officer), along with Dr. Jose María Martínez, a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia, undertook a field visit to monitor and identify key changes in the implementation of the pilot survey in Bihar.

The pilot survey aims to test survey instruments, sampling approaches, and field protocols ahead of the main survey, scheduled for mid-2026. As part of ongoing efforts to refine these instruments and protocols, the project team conducted a field visit to Dariyapur village, Rajgir, Bihar, to monitor the pilot survey being implemented by the survey team. The visit provided an opportunity to observe survey implementation, assess data collection procedures, ensure adherence to the methodology prior to the full-scale rollout, and identify challenges faced by the field team.

The team visited several households to test the questionnaire and review biophysical sample collection processes (soil and leaf sampling) in the field. Observations from this visit will inform refinements to the survey instruments, field protocols, and quality assurance processes.

On January 13, 2026, the FAS team also visited the office of the Director of Agriculture at Krishi Bhawan, Patna, to collect relevant administrative data related to the project. The team conducted interviews with several government officials to understand the scope of available data and to collect the required information.

Here are a few glimpses of the visit…