EXTENSION AND OUTREACH EXPERIENCE
Resilient Systems for Sustainable Management of Cucurbit Crops (research assistant)
with Gleason, M. (PI), X. Zhang, G. Beattie, A. Nair, W. Zhang, L. Iles, R. Bessin, L.W. Morton, S. Pethybridge, M. Williams, D.A. Gonthier, and H.C. Dantzker (the rest are co-PIs); $2,000,000 funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), 2019/10-2022/9.
Testing New Tactics and Technology for More Efficient Management of Summer Diseases of Apples (research assistant)
with Gleason, M.(PI), W. Zhang, D. Cochran, and M.L. Lewis Ivey (the rest are co-PIs); $323,520 funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Crop Protection and Pest Management (CPPM), 2019/4-2022/3.
Cucurbits under Cover: Assessing the Economic Efficiency of Mesotunnels for Organic Cucurbit Growers (2021 AAEA Extension Graduate Students Competition Finalist)
supervised by Wendong Zhang
Organic cucurbit growers struggle with pests and diseases and miss opportunities to expand into a larger organic market share and organic pesticides do not work well against key pests. The GOAL of the program is to help organic cucurbit growers increase their knowledge of the profitability and cost-efficiency of mesotunnels and to decide if they should adopt mesotunnels to increase profits and create new marketing opportunities.
with Gleason, M. (PI), X. Zhang, G. Beattie, A. Nair, W. Zhang, L. Iles, R. Bessin, L.W. Morton, S. Pethybridge, M. Williams, D.A. Gonthier, and H.C. Dantzker (the rest are co-PIs); $2,000,000 funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), 2019/10-2022/9.
- Applied partial budget analysis to study the cost-efficiency of mesotunnel system.
- Interviewed growers and wrote reports related to growers' decision-making process to adopt (or not) new technologies such as mesotunnels.
- Wrote blogs about how partial budget analysis helps to measure cost-efficiency of mesotunnel systems.
- Designed surveys for organic cucurbit growers to estimate their likelihood of mesotunnel adoption using discrete choice experiment.
Testing New Tactics and Technology for More Efficient Management of Summer Diseases of Apples (research assistant)
with Gleason, M.(PI), W. Zhang, D. Cochran, and M.L. Lewis Ivey (the rest are co-PIs); $323,520 funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Crop Protection and Pest Management (CPPM), 2019/4-2022/3.
- Applied partial budget analysis to study the cost-efficiency of intelligent sprayer.
- Applied technico-economic method to quantify the payback periods.
- Wrote blogs about how partial budget analysis helps to measure cost-efficiency of intelligent sprayers.
Cucurbits under Cover: Assessing the Economic Efficiency of Mesotunnels for Organic Cucurbit Growers (2021 AAEA Extension Graduate Students Competition Finalist)
supervised by Wendong Zhang
Organic cucurbit growers struggle with pests and diseases and miss opportunities to expand into a larger organic market share and organic pesticides do not work well against key pests. The GOAL of the program is to help organic cucurbit growers increase their knowledge of the profitability and cost-efficiency of mesotunnels and to decide if they should adopt mesotunnels to increase profits and create new marketing opportunities.
EXTENSION AND OUTREACH REPORTS
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2021. "The OREI Cucurbit Crops Project Year 1 Whole Team and Advisory Panel/Cooperative Grower Surveys." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Technical Report, February 2021.
Morton L. W., N.Y. Cheng and K. Diggins. 2021. "Cucurbit growers’ perceptions of mesotunnel production systems." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Technical Report, January 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2021. "What do Farmers and Researchers Think About Mesotunnels and Biological Controls for Cucurbit Crops? Responses from 2020 surveys." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Technical Blog, August 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2020. "Does Investing in the Intelligent Sprayer Make Economic Sense?" Iowa State University Smart Spraying for Apples Blog, January 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2020. "How do we assess the economic efficiency of mesotunnels? An economist’s take." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Blog, September 2020.
Morton L. W., N.Y. Cheng and K. Diggins. 2021. "Cucurbit growers’ perceptions of mesotunnel production systems." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Technical Report, January 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2021. "What do Farmers and Researchers Think About Mesotunnels and Biological Controls for Cucurbit Crops? Responses from 2020 surveys." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Technical Blog, August 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2020. "Does Investing in the Intelligent Sprayer Make Economic Sense?" Iowa State University Smart Spraying for Apples Blog, January 2021.
Cheng, N.Y. and W.D. Zhang. 2020. "How do we assess the economic efficiency of mesotunnels? An economist’s take." Iowa State University Current Cucurbit Blog, September 2020.