News

View the original article by ACES Research here.

URBANA, Ill. – The right mineral fertilizers applied appropriately can alleviate nutrient deficiencies in soils and increase crop yields, but most small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have their soils tested to reveal these deficiencies.

A Tanzania field study shows targeted fertilizer recommendations from low-cost, on-site soil tests paired with subsidies to purchase the recommended fertilizer can increase maize yields on small-scale farms. The soil tests also showed that a change in basic fertilizer recommendations from the government of Tanzania could address an important soil deficiency in Morogoro, where the study took place.

“The result stands out among similar studies because of the magnitude of the yield change – nearly 30% - and its statistical significance,” says Hope Michelson, associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois and a principal investigator on the research.

Authors: Peter Christensen, Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri & Christopher Timmins recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

(From Wired Magazine, Oct. 14)

IN JACK'S SOLAR Garden in Boulder County, Colorado, owner Byron Kominek has covered 4 of his 24 acres with solar panels. The farm is growing a huge array of crops underneath them—carrots, kale, tomatoes, garlic, beets, radishes, lettuce, and more. It’s also been generating enough electricity to power 300 homes. “We decided to go about this in terms of needing to figure out how to make more money for land that we thought should be doing more,” Kominek says.

Several doctoral students in the ACE department are completing their studies soon and starting to search for their next professional adventures. We want to highlight their research and show you a glimpse of how much energy, effort, and support they bring to our group. This month we share profiles of two such students: Chang Cai and Noé Nava.

My research interests focus on issues related to parks, outdoor recreation, and adaptation to climate change and extreme events. I’m currently working to understand how tourists perceive and respond to raging wildfires and thick smoke in national parks. My research frequently explores the use of interesting geospatial data and leverages the tools of causal inference and machine learning. Beyond academia, I am an avid hiker.

What work are you most proud of from your time at UIUC?

The $15 million Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) will receive the funding over five years as part of the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution, which establishes five institutes across the United States to explore questions at the frontiers of science and engineering. I-GUIDE will enable geospatial data-driven scientific discovery at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the resulting research will lead to better understanding of the risks and impacts of climate change and disasters.

CEOS Co-Director Amy Ando is a Senior Personnel researcher  on the grant and will largely contribute to two tasks:

1. Assess sustainability of water management infrastructure.