People

PI: Rajan Ghimire, Ph.D.

Cropping Systems and Soil Management Laboratory
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.

Google scholar site

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences



Postdoctoral Research Associate 

Abdelaziz Nilahyane, Ph.D.: Abdelaziz is working on forage systems project in which we are looking into soil health indicators, soil water dynamics, greenhouse gas emissions, and forage quality in a corn-sorghum rotation after diverse winter cover cropping. 

Graduate students


Sk. Musfiq-Us-Salehin, M.S. Student, 2018-2020: The main goal of Musfiq's research is to study the nitrogen dynamics in semiarid drylands. He evaluates soil N pools and N2O emissions in the dryland sorghum field with diverse N fertility rates and compost application.  









Pramod Achayra, M.S. Student, 2017-2019: Studying soil profile C and N dynamics, soil health, and soil structure under diverse cover crops limited-irrigation winter wheat-sorghum-fallow. The main goal of my research is to increase crop diversity and improve soil resilience while transitioning from limited irrigation to dryland crop production.  
Role: Co-advisor (ENMU)

Vesh R. Thapa, Ph.D. Student, 2018-2021: Soil health and crop production in limited irrigation cropping systems.  I am comparing soil health indicators such as active C, mineralizable C, available N, soil aggregation, and crop yields in limited irrigation cropping systems with diverse cover crops. Overall, the research is addressing the need for crop diversification to improve the agronomic, economic and economic sustainability of New Mexico farmers in the face of declining Ogallala water for irrigation and climate change.
Role: Major advisor





Recent graduates

Mikayla J. Allan, M.S. Student, 2017-2018: Understanding soil spatial and temporal variability for forage corn production and hydrological modeling within New Mexico. In the job market now.  

Vesh R. Thapa, 2016-2018: Agricultural management systems affect soil health and crop production in drylands of Eastern New Mexico (Role: Major advisor). Continuing as a Ph.D. Student with me at NMSU. 

Binod Ghimire, M.S., 2017, Cover crops effects on soil organic matter dynamics, weed suppression and crop yield in a limited-irrigated winter wheat-summer fallow system (Role: Co-advisor), Currently Ph.D. Student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL. 

Visiting scholars

Babu Ram Khanal, 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, China Agricultural University, Simulating SOC dynamics and GHG emissions in cropping systems using DayCent Model, September/October 2017.