Project

Crop rotations in California rice systems - assessing grower decision-making, economics, impacts on sustainability including soil health, and cover crop performance.

Paper summarizing challenges and benefits based on grower interviews 

Press release describing progress on economic decision support tool 

Background

Sara grew up in the Bay Area, where the majority of her family still resides. She received her bachelor’s degree from The Evergreen State College in Plant Science and Ethno-ecology.  Sara has traveled for most of her young adult life and this passion for traveling combined with an interest in agriculture led her to join the Peace Corps.  After three years of serving in Ghana, followed by multiple years working on diversified vegetable farms, she joined the International Agriculture Development group at UC Davis in order to explore the relationship between development, extension and research. As a Peace Corps Volunteer she developed women’s savings and loans groups and supported small holder farmers in adopting conservation agriculture practices through developing training programs and implementing demonstration fields in the communities she worked with. Her experience abroad helped shape her research interest as she witnessed how vulnerable rural populations are to our changing climate and other global impacts.

Research Interests

My interests are concerned with participatory approaches to agronomic research: engaging stakeholders in the research process to better bridge research and extension efforts, and develop best fit solutions for end users. My focus has been on exploring ecological intensification practices that best fit the agroecosystems, as well as evaluating dimensions which influence farmer’s decision making on adopting agriculture innovations.