Unlike some other research projects that received funding for this Jastro period, my project focused more on applied work and information gathering to support the development of an innovative high school in an indigenous region of Northern Guatemala.
Unique of typical irrigation projects, I worked most closely with a non-governmental organization called the Teso Women’s Development Initiative (TEWDI Uganda) – a major partner in the HIP collaboration – that serves as an effective community-based advocate for gender equity on a variety of issues beyond just irrigation.
The Jastro award allowed me to purchase a camera and audio recording equipment, as well as allowed for some travel while I was on my fellowship in Guatemala to do some basic archival research.
With funding from the UC Davis Jastro Award, I travelled to Western New Mexico to research the ways that gardens are being implemented by First Nations-serving organizations (predominately Navajo and Zuni).
Contrary to the traditional IAD research project, where graduate students leave the U.S. to conduct research abroad, I’m studying the implementation of a new groundwater policy here in California: The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014.
Through the support of Henry A. Jastro Research Fellowship, I have traveled to Taiwan to conduct research in August-September 2017. This research project seeks to understand and evaluate the impact of the implementation on a new agricultural rice policy, Deficiency Payment, from the perspective of rice farmers and government agricultural administrators.
Through the support from the Henry A. Jastro Fellowship and the Research and Innovation in Agriculture Fellowship, I collaborated with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to conduct research in Northern Vietnam.
In August-September 2016, sponsored by the Henry A. Jastro Research Fellowship, I traveled to Nepal to interview female farmers about changes to their households and farms amid massive male emigration.
