Prof. Dr. Irfan Baig
Principal Investigator (WP3, Organisational Innovations)
MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (MNSUAM)
Irfan Ahmad Baig is an agricultural economist with over twenty-seven years of combined experience in teaching, research, agricultural extension, policy analysis, and academic administration. Based at MNS University of Agriculture, Multan, his work bridges transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder research and practical resource management, with a focus on irrigation and groundwater systems, climate-change adaptation, and smallholder livelihoods across Pakistan's Indus Basin and South Punjab. He has been a key contributor to international initiatives such as AgMIP and ACIAR-funded projects and has helped shape provincial agricultural policy in 2018 and National Seed Policy in 2025. Dr Baig and his team has also developed Mid-Century South Punjab Agriculture Sectoral Plan 2023 from the platform of CAS-SP.
Research interests
- Agricultural economics and policy analysis
- Climate-change adaptation in agriculture
- Salinity and resilient farming systems
- Irrigation reform and groundwater management
- Smallholder livelihoods and rural development
- Water-economy and impact assessment
- Participatory and transdisciplinary approaches
Education
2009
PhD, Agricultural Economics
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
HEC Indigenous Scholarship
1997
M.Sc. (Hons.), Agricultural Economics
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
UGC Fellowship
Research projects
Innovations for Resilient Smallholder Production Systems in Punjab (SMALLPAK) — Focal Person & Lead WP-3
Adapting to Salinity in the Southern Indus Basin (LWR-2017-027) — ACIAR — Project Team Lead / PI
Improving Groundwater Management to Enhance Agriculture and Farming Livelihoods in Pakistan (LWR-2015-36) — ACIAR — Team Leader
Accelerating Genetic Gain in Wheat through Hybrid Breeding in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Pakistan (CROP-2020-167) — ACIAR — Focal Person
Taxing the Rental Incomes in Agriculture & Impact of Major Agricultural Policies on Cotton Production — RASTA — Principal Investigator
Risk-based Assessment & Groundwater Modelling for the Khanewal Study Area — FAO — Team Leader
Selected publications
Ahsan, M.B., Baig, I.A., Sarfraz, B., Riaz, M.F., Mehdi, M., Rehman, A.U., Mitchell, M. & Haseeb, M. (2025). Exploring opportunities for smallholder saline farmers: a case of Moringa value chain in South Punjab, Pakistan. Journal of Global Innovations in Agricultural Sciences.
Mitchell, M., Allan, C., Ahmad, M., Baig, I.A. et al. (2025). Adapting to Salinity in the Southern Indus Basin (ASSIB). ACIAR Final Report LWR-2017-027.
Baig, I.A. et al. (2025). Integrating local knowledge and institutional analysis to address soil salinity in agro-based rural communities. Journal of Innovative Agriculture and Social Development.
Usman, M., Ali, A., Ghafoor, A., Akram, R., Mohmed, R.A., Baig, I.A., Kharal, M. & Wudil, A.H. (2024). Sustainable rural livelihoods in the face of climate-induced hazards in Pakistan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 106.
Baig, I.A., Ullah, S. & Nasir, S. (2023). Policy impacts on comparative advantage and production protection to cotton and its competing crops in Pakistan. Pakistan Development Review, 62(4), 539–552.
Saddique, T.U.R., Saloum, S.S., Razzaq, A., Hussain, A., Baig, I.A., Ali, Z. & Khan, Z. (2023). Deep-RPA: vulnerability classification of a genome for CRISPR/Cas9 off-targets. Current Bioinformatics, 18.
Amin, M., Khan, M.R., Hassan, S.S., Imran, M., Hanif, M. & Baig, I.A. (2023). Determining satellite-based evapotranspiration product and its relationship with other observed data in Punjab, Pakistan. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 25, 23–39.
Rehman, M., Razzaq, A., Baig, I.A., Jabeen, J., Tahir, M.H.N., Ahmed, U.I., Altaf, A. & Abbas, T. (2022). Semantics analysis of agricultural experts' opinions for crop productivity through machine learning. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 36(1).
Imran, M.A., Ali, A., Culas, R.J., Ashfaq, M., Baig, I.A., Nasir, S. & Hashmi, A.H. (2022). Sustainability and efficiency analysis of climate-smart agriculture adoption in Pakistan: a group-wise comparison. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 19337–19351.
Abdullah, M.H., Ahmad, A., Saboor, A., Aftab, M., Baig, I.A., Iftikhar, M. & Hussian, J. (2022). Climatic variability during cropping seasons in agroecological zones of Pakistan. International Journal of Agricultural Extension, 10(1), 9–22.