My thesis research focuses on supporting small-scale farmers to sustain and advance their cacao production. I traveled to rural Colombia and partnered with Universidad de La Salle Utopía, Unitrópico, and Andean Cacao Company to work with small-scale cacao farmers, learning about their diverse production and the barriers to achieving higher yields and profits.
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.
We are conducting laboratory toxicity assays using the standard oribatid mite species, Oppia nitens. In these experiments to further explore how habitat quality influences soil resilience to contaminants.
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.
My first stop was at Gansu Agricultural University in Northwestern China where I presented the poster carousel. I also visited China Agricultural University in Beijing and had the opportunity to work in groups of different nationalities to ideate on how we can integrate crop diversity benefits with farmers’ requirements to design sustainable, diversified cropping systems readily used by farmers.
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.
