Shadi Atallah
Associate Professor, ACE
"The Economics of Agroecological Practices for Sustainable Agriculture:
An Ecosystem Service Modeling Approach"
Sustainably producing more and better food relies in part on the adoption of agroecological farming practices that can help growers promote the flow of ecosystem services and reduce chemical input use. These ecosystem services, above and below ground, act as substitutes or complements to chemical inputs and can provide resilience to biotic and abiotic stressors. However, the complex relationship between agroecological practices and ecosystem service provision makes it hard to assess the benefits of adoption to farmers. Integrating an ecosystem modeling approach with an economic simulation-optimization framework can help solve this problem and lead to science-based recommendations. I will discuss examples of this plant and farm-level integrated modeling approach with applications to practices that can mitigate the tradeoff between pest and pollinator management, reduce the impact of pest and disease outbreaks, reduce nitrogen use, and increase resilience to droughts. I will use case studies of apple, watermelon, corn, lupine, and coffee production in the US and the Tropic.
Zoom: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/92851117722?pwd=aEl6RjlQaGxod2k2R3kzWmxCYXpQUT09
Meeting id: 928 5111 7722. Password: pere
