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. 

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to aid with dryland ephemeral stream monitoring in Morocco as a part of the DReAM program. This three-year research and educational program is designed to collect hydrologic data concerning water levels in several large Moroccan aquifers. The two professors managing the trip have extensive professional networks throughout Morocco and plan to bring three cohorts of qualified undergraduate and graduate students to assist with field work, project management, and data analysis with the project in Morocco. I was part of the first cohort with this program.

My Jastro grant was used to support me in my research to look at how soil organic carbon management effects wheat yield and nitrogen losses—specifically nitrous oxide. Carbon and nitrogen cycling are tightly linked in agricultural soils and there is increasing evidence that greater soil organic carbon (SOC) inputs may negatively impact soil nitrous oxide emissions. In this study, we are examining these potential tradeoffs through the planting of wheat in a controlled greenhouse trial.

More than ever, coffee farmers face constant economic stress and uncertainty; exacerbating the volatile international coffee market are the increasing impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Most farmers earn only a few dollars per day. 

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a management system that focuses on supporting soil health by minimizing tillage, maintaining soil cover, and increasing cropping system diversity. System- driven management practices such as CA have shown a variety of benefits to farmers via increased yields, reduced labor requirements, improving soil fertility, increasing water holding capacity and reducing erosion.

During the summer, many IAD Masters students can be found working with an organization in another country and conducting research. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, traveling was not possible this past summer which meant students and organizations had to get creative.  

In 2020 Guatemalan coffee producers faced unprecedented challenges: restricted movement in their communities, which limited their ability to obtain household resources and inputs for coffee production and transportation of coffee for export, heavy rains and two hurricanes and – like all of us – the health risks of COVID-19. With this context, what research was possible? What research would be useful? And how could international research continue?