Together with the Raices Director, Paul Hicks (also an IAD alum) and two of my committee members, we decided that benchmarking irrigated areas in the Agua Caliente watershed where CRS’ efforts are focused, would be an ideal place to start.
In 2019, the Henry A. Jastro Graduate Research Award helped launch a research partnership with private sector partners in the Guatemalan coffee sector and in 2020, additional funding made it possible for that research to continue remotely, despite the challenges of COVID-19.
Through funding from the California Rice Research Board and the Henry A. Jastro award, my IAD research was made possible to quantify nitrogen fertilizer losses in drill-seeded rice systems in California, with the intention of providing growers with a simple tool to estimate and help determine where losses might be mitigated and supplemented to optimize yield outcomes.
The project “will expand food safety education and training to farmers belonging to marginalized groups in the Sacramento region.” Specifically, the marginalized groups are refugee farmers growing fruits and vegetables on relatively small pieces of land.
With the support of the Henry A. Jastro Research Fellowship, I had the privilege of addressing this issue and improving postharvest drying practices of coffee in El Paraíso, Honduras in December 2019.
The objective of the research needs assessment was to understand the major agronomic challenges faced by producers and document information pathways and decision-making criteria of coffee producers across at least two departments in Guatemala.
The Henry A Jastro Research Award gave me the means to work with the International Potato Center researching food and nutritional security among women in the Andean Highlands of Peru.
The purpose of my trip was to understand the impact that Hurricane Maria had on urban agriculture. I did this by interviewing women who are involved in the urban agriculture sector in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
