PI: Rajan Ghimire, Ph.D.
My research focuses on improving efficiency, profitability, and soil environmental quality in dryland and limited-irrigation cropping systems. I am interested in soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling, soil-plant relations, and greenhouse gas emissions, soil organic matter-microbial community interactions, and their relationships with sustainable crop production and ecosystem services.
Postdoctoral Associate
Dr. Paye's research involves evaluating conservation tillage systems and exploring the potential of improving soil health and resilience through innovative crop and forage production practices in semiarid regions.
Graduate students
Sundar Sapkota, Ph.D. Student, 2021-2024: Effects of circular grass buffer strips on soil health and soil C/N cycling.
Vesh R. Thapa, Ph.D. Student, 2018-2021: Cover crop effects on soil biological health and crop production in limited irrigation cropping systems. Vesh is comparing soil health indicators such as mineralizable C, available N, soil aggregation, and crop yields with and without cover cropping.
Laboratory Technician
Sk. Musfiq-Us-Salehin, M.S. 2020: Evaluate soil N pools and N2O emissions in the dryland sorghum. More on his work is available here
Laboratory Technician
- Vacant
Recent graduates and postdocs
Sk. Musfiq-Us-Salehin, M.S. 2020: Evaluate soil N pools and N2O emissions in the dryland sorghum. More on his work is available here 
Abdelaziz Nilahyane, Ph.D., 2018-2019: Evaluating soil health indicators and forage quality in a corn-sorghum rotation. Now Research Fellow at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco.
Vesh R. Thapa, M.S. 2018: Agricultural management systems affect soil health and crop production in drylands of Eastern New Mexico (Role: Major advisor). Now a Ph.D. student at NMSU.
Mikayla J. Allan, M.S. 2018: Understanding soil spatial and temporal variability for forage corn production and hydrological modeling within New Mexico. Now working for NRCS, NM.
Binod Ghimire, M.S. 2017, Cover crops effects on soil organic matter dynamics, weed suppression, Now a Ph.D. Student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Babu Ram Khanal, Visiting Scholar from Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal. Soil C and N change during the transition from irrigated to dryland cropping system, October 2018 to January 2019.
Visiting Scholars
Babu Ram Khanal, Visiting Scholar from Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal. Soil C and N change during the transition from irrigated to dryland cropping system, October 2018 to January 2019. Yaqiong Fan, Visiting Scholar from China Agricultural University, Simulating SOC dynamics and GHG emissions in cropping systems using DayCent Model, September/October 2017.