Dr. Baljinder Kaur Sidana is working as a Scientist (Quantitative Methods) in the Department of Economics & Sociology since Jan 2009. She is working in prestigious Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in Punjab State” and is involved in validating and submitting a huge data set to Economics, Statistics & Evaluation Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India which is used to calculate cost of cultivation and production of major crops grown in Punjab State. This set of data is used for fixing Minimum Support Price(MSP) of concerned crops by CACP for the state.

Her field of specialization is Farm Management. She has completed two internationally funded projects in the capacity of Co-PI funded by Columbia Water Centre, Columbia University, USA (2008 to 2012) amounting to Rs 20 lacs and the other funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada (2012 to 2015) with the budget outlay of 1.5 crores. She has completed three nationally funded projects as Co-PI funded by ICAR under Farmer First Programme, 2017-19 with annual budget of nearly Rs. 50 lacs aimed at adopting villages, promoting conservation agriculture and enhancing farmers’ income through a mix of crop and allied enterprises; the other one funded by ICAR-NIAP, 2017-19 with a budget of Rs. 36.68 lacs and Agricultural Lending, Credit Absorption, End Use, Recovery and Return from Farming in the state of Punjab funded by PNB bank, with a budget of Rs. 38.25 lacs. Currently she is handling one ICAR-NIAP project budgeting Rs. 39.80 lacs. Her research work on water resource assessment and modeling; optimal crop plans; groundwater depletion scenario and impact of climate change on production efficiency of rice and wheat crops in Punjab agriculture have proved beneficial for policy makers. 

She has guided 15 M.Sc. Agri. Economics and 3 PhD students as major advisor, published 70 research papers in national and international journals and presented 50 papers in national and international conferences. She has delivered 150 extension lectures to farmers for adopting RCTs and on awareness of groundwater depletion and possible solutions. 

Besides being a life member of various professional and academic societies and a referee for many journal articles, she served as a Member of the Editorial Board of the Society of Economics and Development from 2018 to 2019, and subsequently held the position of Editor of the Journal of Agricultural Development & Policy being published  by Indian Society of Agricultural Development & Policy from 2019 to 2022. She is Chairman and Member of various University and College level societies and remained on Member, Board of Studies, Khalsa College, Amritsar, 2020-21 and 2021-22

Professional Accomplishments

Research Publications:

1. Chand P, Singh J M, Sachdeva J, Singh J, Agarwal P, Jain R, Rao S and Kaur B (2022). Irrigation water policies for sustainable groundwater management in irrigated northwestern plains of India. Current Science 123(10): 1225-1231.(NAAS Rating: 7.1)
2. Kumar S, Sidana B K and Thakur S (2023). Climate change and its impact on productivity of major kharif and rabi crops in Punjab. Mausam 74(1): 151-160. (NAAS Rating: 6.7)
3. Sharma Y, Sidana B K, Kumar S, Kaur S, Sekhon M K, Mahal A K and Mehan S (2023). Pre and post water level behaviour in Punjab: Impact analysis with DiD approach. Sustainability 15(3): 2426-2444. (NAAS Rating: 9.3)
4. Ranguwal S, Sidana B K, Singh J, Sachdeva J, Kumar S, Sharma R K and Dhillon J (2023). Quantifying the energy use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions in Punjab (India) agriculture. Energy Nexus 11: 100238. (NAAS Rating: 14)
5. Kaur, S., Sidana, B. K., Kaur, S., & Biswas, A. (2025). Carbon footprint reduction in Punjab agriculture: Analyzing impacts and strategies in major crop rotations. Energy Nexus, 18, 100424. (NAAS Rating: 14)

Awards and Recognitions:

1. Dr. N.A. Mujumdar Award for Best paper(Optimising Irrigation Water use in Punjab: Role of  Crop Diversification and Technology) at 75th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics in 2015
2. Best paper presentation award for “Water and Energy Use Efficiency of maize vis a vis paddy crop in Punjab agriculture: A move Towards crop diversification in Punjab” presented at 5th National Seminar on Towards Sustainable Agriculture: Role of Technology, Policy Planning and Implementation held on Apr 5, 2018, PAMETI, PAU, Ludhiana
3. Best Oral presentation Award for the paper “Celery Based Crop Rotations in Punjab: Move towards Higher Returns and Farm Profitability” (Second position; Regional conference of ISAE-22) received from Shere Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Jammu(SKUAST-J) on 22 Sept., 2022
4. Best Oral presentation Award for the paper “Potential of Maize crop for Sustainable Agriculture in Punjab” (First position in ISADP Conference, 2023) awarded by Indian Society for Agricultural Development and Policy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana on 30th Nov., 2023

Prof. R.S. Deshpande award for Research Paper “Irrigation Water policies for Sustainable Groundwater Management in Irrigated North Western Plains of India” awarded by Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru on 20th January, 2024