Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University and Research Institute (RKMVERI)
Faculty Host: Somen Nandi
Faculty Host Contact: snandi@ucdavis.edu
Rupak Goswami is an Associate Professor of Agriculture and Rural Development at the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Kolkata 700103, India. He was a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Fellow at UC Davis during 2018–19, where he worked on the computational aspects of farm resource recycling in India and studied the mental models of farmers in California’s Central Valley. Earlier, in 2013, he served as an Exchange Faculty at UC Davis and as an Invited Faculty at Georgia Southern University.
In 2025, Rupak returned to UC Davis as a Visiting Associate Professor under the Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Research Fellowship. As part of this program, he is bringing cognitive perspectives into policy research on climate-smart agriculture in the Indo-Pacific region. This research will continue at CSIRO, Adelaide, and PRIMAFF, Tokyo, during 2025–26.
At RKMVERI, Rupak leads a research group that explores novel tools and techniques to evaluate and analyze the sustainability of smallholder farms and agri-food systems. Through interdisciplinary approaches, the group examines diverse socio-ecological systems using conventional surveys, participatory action research, mixed-methods research, network analysis, whole-farm economic analysis, adoption prediction, and cognitive mapping to understand the complex behavior of smallholder farming systems. Their work identifies key structures and processes in farming and food systems—such as human cognitive maps and decision-making, social networks, technology diffusion, and the nexus of climate, migration, and gender. By linking these elements to rural outcomes, including project design, technology adoption, crop productivity, farm sustainability, and human nutrition, the group seeks to design sustainable farming and food systems and to generate policy-relevant knowledge.
Rupak has implemented projects, fellowships, and consultancy assignments funded by the Government of India (DST, DBT, ICAR, ICSSR), and international research organizations (IPNI, IRRI, CSIRO, Welthungerhilfe, USIEF, GFAD-UC Davis, The Japan Foundation) and collaborated across four continents on varied assignments. He is a passionate reviewer and associated with the journal editorial positions of Agricultural Systems, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformations.
Rupak has implemented projects, fellowships, and consultancy assignments funded by the Government of India (DST, DBT, ICAR, ICSSR) and by international organizations including IPNI, IRRI, CSIRO, Welthungerhilfe, USIEF, GFAD-UC Davis, and The Japan Foundation. He has collaborated on diverse assignments across four continents. He is also an active reviewer and serves on the editorial boards of Agricultural Systems and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.
Last updated: 2025