Petra Schmitter

Research Group Leader – Climate Mitigation & Adaptation Pathways

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 and to assess the impact of scaling those solutions on water resource availability and quality at different scales.

Over the past 14 years she has mainly worked in interdisciplinary research for development projects in SE Asia, West and East Africa in the field of climate change adaptation, farmer-led irrigation, water productivity, irrigation scheme modernization, land degradation and hydrological modelling. She enjoys evaluating suitable technologies with smallholder farmers, PhD and Msc. students and uses the field evidence to drive changes in policy and development programs.

She holds a a PhD in Agricultural Science from the University of Hohenheim (2011) for which she received an Award for outstanding research, a Msc. in Water Resources Engineering from the K.U.Leuven – V.U.B.(2005) and a MSc. in Bio-Engineering in Environmental Technology from the K.U. Leuven (2004). She has over 100 publications and contributed to book chapters around climate smart solutions to improve agricultural production.

Recent publications