Profile of Sri. Vikash Kumar Rai

• B.Sc. (Ag.): Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P (India)
• M.Sc. (Agricultural Physics): Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (India)
• PhD–pursuing (Biosystem and Ag. Engineering–): Department of Biosystem and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (USA)

Professional Area

• Research Area: Environmental Soil Physics, Simulation Modelling, Remote Sensing & GIS
• Research Interests: Vadose Zone Hydrology, Soil Health Monitoring, Precision Agriculture, Remote Sensing Applications in Agriculture, Climate Change Modeling
• Memberships/Fellow of Societies: American Geophysical Union; American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers; British Ecological Society; Indian Society of Agricultural Physics, Indian Society of Soil Science; Bihar Agriculture Science Academy

PUBLICATIONS:

• Research articles/Review articles/Short Communication: 30
• Books & Book Chapters: 04
• Popular Articles: 05

KEY PUBLICATIONS:

• Research / Review paper

1. Rai, V., Urfels, A., Sehgal, V., McDonald, A. J., Das, N. (2025). A review on evolving drought patterns and the rising trajectory of agricultural drought resilience in India. Science of the Total Environment (Under Review: STOTEN-D-25-03114)

2. Rai, V., Singh, G., Urfels, A., Das, N. (2025). Unraveling agricultural drought risks over four decades across India. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (Under Review: EJSS-546-25)

3. Rai, V., Kumar, M., Chandra, R. (2025). Assessing the Impact of Land Configuration and Fertilizer Application on Soil Nitrogen Dynamics and Water Use Efficiency in Rabi Maize (Zea mays L.) in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Bihar.  European Journal of Soil Science (Under Review: EJSS-546-25)

4. Rai, V., Chatterjee, S., Singh, N., Kumar, M. (2025). Comparative evaluation of traditional, machine learning, and deep learning models for estimation of key Soil Properties using Pedotransfer Functions in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Vadose Zone Journal (Under Review: VZJ-2025-08-0096-OA)

5. Rai, V., Pramanik, P., Das, T. K., Aggarwal, P., Bhattacharyya, R., Krishnan, P., & Sehgal, V. K. (2019). Modelling soil hydrothermal regimes in pigeon pea under conservation agriculture using Hydrus-2D. Soil and Tillage Research, 190, 92-108.

6. Rai, V., Aggarwal, P., Pramanik, P., Sehgal, V. K and Shafeeq, P.M. (2018). Field evaluation of infiltration models under different conservation agriculture treatments. Journal of Agricultural Physics, 18, 31-38.

7. Rai, V., Pramanik, P., Aggarwal, P., Krishnan, P., & Bhattacharyya, R. (2018). Effect of conservation agriculture on soil physical health. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 7, 373-389.

8. Rai, V., Pramanik, P., Aggarwal, P., Krishnan, P., Rakshit, A., Das, T. K., & Meena, R. (2017). Determination of Soil Water Stress Coefficient by different Methods for Computing Crop Transpiration Under Bed Planted Pigeon Pea. International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology, 10(6), 681-688.

9. Rai, V., Pramanik, P., Aggarwal, P., Krishnan, P., & Bhattacharyya, R. (2018). Effect of Conservation Agriculture on Soil Physical Health. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci, 7(2), 373-389.

10. Kumar, N., Rai, V., Kumar, M., Chandra, R., Aggarwal, P., & Jain, S. K. (2025). Assessing soil water dynamics and wheat growth under different irrigation and planting strategies using HYDRUS-2D. Hydrology Research, 56(9), 878-901. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2025.026            

• Policy Paper

1. Srivastava, R. C., Chowdhury, S. R., Kumari, S., Chandra, R., Rai, V. K., Sumar, S (2021).  Policy paper on management options for waterlogged and flood prone areas of Bihar: a scientific perspective, Policy Paper 02, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar).

• Key Book Chapters

1. Chaudhary, A., Singh, R. N., Rai, V. K., Dubey, S. K., & Kumari, K. (2021). Introduction to Drone Technology for Natural Resource Management in Agriculture. In Soil Science: Fundamentals to Recent Advances (pp. 553-579). Springer, Singapore.

2. Pramanik, P., Krishnan, P., Maity, A., Mridha, N., Mukherjee, A., & Rai, V. (2020). Application of nanotechnology in agriculture. In Environmental Nanotechnology Volume 4 (pp. 317-348). Springer, Cham.

3. Rai, V. (2021). Flood Monitoring and Crop Damage Assessment conducted by RPCAU. In RPCAU e-Newsletter (August 2021).

A. Department of Soil Science, TCA, Dholi, (RPCAU, Pusa) Muzaffarpur-845418 Bihar, India

M. vikas.soils@rpcau.ac.in; raivikas@msu.edu 

T. +91- 9910940174; +1- 5174927492