In Uganda, women play a key role in agriculture. They are the backbone of household food production and rural livelihoods. Yet, they often remain excluded from access to productive resources such as land, inputs, and extension services. This exclusion is even more pronounced among women with disabilities, who face both gender-based and disability-related barriers.

With support from the Jastro-Shields Research Award and the Graduate Fellowship for Agricultural Development (GFAD) and in collaboration with the agricultural research organization CIMMYT, I spent 2 months in Nepal this summer conducting field research with smallholder farmers.

Viticulture is a cornerstone of California’s agricultural economy, producing some of the world’s most recognized wines. However, modern vineyard management often depends on intensive pesticide use and mechanized practices that can contribute to soil erosion, pollution, reduced carbon storage, and biodiversity loss. These environmental challenges threaten not only ecosystem health but also the long-term sustainability and productivity of viticultural systems.

In 2021 Sri Lanka became the first modern country to attempt to transition its agriculture sector to 100% organic practices, following a Governmental ban on the importation of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides. It did not go as planned.

California’s Sacramento Valley, known for its hot, dry summers and abundant sunshine, produces the second-highest rice yields in the world after Australia. However, rising temperatures and more frequent extreme events such as droughts, heat waves, and cold events are expected to challenge this productivity.

This summer, we attended DroneCamp 2025, a weeklong program designed to introduce participants to drone flying, drone regulations, and data analysis. The program was held at CSU Monterey Bay. As students of International Agricultural Development, we both share an interest in remote sensing applications in agriculture and we understand how powerful drones can be as research tools. DroneCamp 2025 was an excellent introduction for us to explore that route especially in beautiful, seaside Monterey, California!

Why Drones?

I was excited and couldn’t wait to see what the next few weeks had in store during my visit to China.

My two-week stay at China Agricultural University for an AI and Remote Sensing Summer School was really a wholesome experience with a mix of lectures, field trips, travel, good food, and above all, new friendships from all around the globe.

Shortly after graduating with my Masters in IAD this past June, I attended the Rural Sociology Society (RSS) annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was a great opportunity to hear about old and new sociological perspectives, network, and present my own master’s research on Rwandan farmer field schools. I also had the privilege of accompanying my advisor, Professor Amanda Crump, thesis committee member Professor Ann Visser, and fellow IAD colleague and lab member Soo-Young Choi, who had just completed her own summer fieldwork in Uganda.

Prior to coming to UC Davis’s International Agricultural Development Masters program, I worked in Peru with the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD), a small development organization supporting high-altitude farming communities in the Sacred Valley. During my time with the organization, I helped lead a student group in the development of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan for the AASD’s greenhouse program, and supported coordination of the first farmer-to-farmer training.

In 2021 Sri Lanka became the first modern country to attempt to transition its agriculture sector to 100% organic practices, banning all synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides. It did not go well.

My research project took me to the outskirts of a small town—Texcoco, Mexico—where the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is located. CIMMYT is an international non-profit organization focused on improving global food security through agricultural research and the development of high-yielding, resilient maize and wheat varieties, as well as sustainable management practices for these crops. Another pillar of CIMMYT’s mission is extension work, where the organization collaborates closely with farmers worldwide through a multitude of annual projects.

My IAD capstone project is part of a multi-year project aimed at understanding and quantifying the benefits of orchard recycling and enhanced weathering amendments applications towards soil health and soil carbon levels. Orchard recycling involves the removal of orchard biomass, mainly through wood chipping, and its subsequent incorporation back into the soil, rather than burning, which significantly harms air quality and contributes to rising carbon emissions.

In Rwanda, smallholder farmers are the primary food producers for the entire country yet are most affected by food insecurity from crop failure. Although Rwanda has a favorable climate, farmers are increasingly vulnerable to environmental shocks in the form of inconsistent and often destructive rainfall followed by long dry periods. In addition, Rwanda is densely populated and most farmers intensely cultivate extremely small landholdings of less than 0.5 hectares, leading to soil degradation and erosion.

Rice producers in Battambang, Cambodia, are facing increasingly significant weather-related risks, such as drought and flooding, that negatively impact rice yield. They currently utilize minimal adaptation strategies to manage these risks. In this context, index insurance arises as an innovative risk management tool that has the potential to promote resilience and improve producers’ livelihoods.