Our Research

With a network of global partners, this program seeks to improve tropical smallholder farming systems for greater productivity and resilience to climate change through ecological approaches. The team's primary goal is to achieve beneficial impact for farmers and the environment. They do this combine research with community-based development approaches and by complementing farmer-driven innovation processes with analytical tools and technical know-how.

• Faculty lead: Erika Styger
• Project website: Climate-Resilient Farming Systems at Cornell

This project examines the extent to which Zambian farmers rely on past climate experiences and cognitive heuristics to make maize seed choices in the context of the ‘choice overload’ that emerged out of seed market liberalization. Researchers are developing a methodology to bridge the spatial and cognitive dimensions around seed selection, using a multi-scale modeling approach that combines physically based high-resolution land surface modeling with satellite data and machine learning.

• Faculty lead: Kurt Waldman
• Funder: National Science Foundation
• Partners: Jordan Blekking, Postdoc in Global Development; Dr. Meha Jain, University of Michigan

SRI-Rice seeks to advance and share knowledge about the System of Rice Intensification, to improve the technical implementation of the SRI methodology, and to support networking among interested organizations agencies, and individuals around the globe.

• Faculty lead: Lucy Fisher
• Program website: SRI-Rice at Cornell

Researchers propose paddy rice farming on agricultural floodplains as a potential scalable climate adaptation to increasing flood risk in the Northeast US, while enhancing the profitability and sustainability of agricultural production. Researchers seek to map the floodplains that are suitable for rice farming in NYS and examine the synergies and tradeoffs in the provision of different ecosystem services in the potential rice farming sites. 

• Faculty lead: Chuan Liao
• Funder: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Smith-Lever Grant
• Partners: Jenny Kao-Kniffin (SIPS) Susan McCouch (SIPS) Wendong Zhang (Dyson)
• Learn more about the project in the Cornell Chronicle.

This project traces the flows of secondhand cars from the US and Europe to West Africa, while seeking to contribute to debates about the social and environmental consequences of the used car trade and how to regulate it. Researchers look at the creativity and ingenuity required to keep cars on the road and at how different forms of value are prioritized through cases of breakdown and repair in Benin, Chad, Guinea, and Nigeria – West African countries with different regulatory regimes and used car inventories.

• Faculty lead: Lori Leonard
• Funder: National Science Foundation