Join us as we welcome Joel Ferguson, a candidate for the Nelson Institute’s RISE-EARTH hiring initiative.
Ferguson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Global Policy Lab at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Using remote sensing and machine learning tools, his research investigates how agricultural systems around the world interact with the environment.
Ferguson will present “Air Quality and Human Health Benefits of Conservation Agriculture Diffusion.”
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Abstract
Sustainable Intensification (SI) technologies are intended to increase agricultural productivity while reducing environmental impact. While many SI techniques are backed by agronomic and case studies, there is a dearth of causal evidence regarding the effects of these technologies as implemented by producers, leading to debate over their value and the extent to which they should be promoted.
We study the consequences of the widespread diffusion of Conservation Agriculture, the world’s most widely practiced SI technique, throughout Mexico due to a national extension effort beginning in 2012, focusing on air quality and infant mortality. Using a quasi-experimental research design that leverages randomness in exposure due to daily wind direction realizations, we find that diffusion of Conservation Agriculture led to large reductions in both fine particulate matter concentration and infant mortality by 2019.
I will also briefly discuss other applications of causal inference, remote sensing, and machine learning to the study of sustainable land systems in my research portfolio.