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College of Science and Engineering
Department of Agricultural Sciences

Faculty Research Interests

The Department of Agricultural Sciences at Texas State University has four faculty members, supported by a research associate, with expertise in various issues related to agricultural, resources, and environmental economics. The faculty conduct high-quality research and publish their research outputs in reputable academic journals, books, book chapters and extension outlets. Our researches address important agricultural, natural resource, and environmental issues that are of importance to stakeholders at various levels and are supported by state, federal and international funding agencies as well as private businesses. One of our faculty is serving in the Management Entity of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish funded by USAID. The faculty are constantly working to garner more funding support for conducting scholarly research for the betterment of agricultural and allied sectors, and to support students through internships, travel grants, assistantships etc. 

Agricultural Business, Economics and Policy

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Dr. Jesse Backstrom - Assistant Professor   
jbackstrom@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Oil and Gas 
  • Non-Market Valuation 
  • Renewable Energy 
  • Information 
  • Bargaining 
  • Discrimination 
  • Asset Markets 
  • Auctions 
  • Charitable Giving
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Dr. Madan Dey - Professor   
mmd120@txstate.edu   
Research interests:

  • Aquaculture and fisheries economics
  • Food and agricultural sector modeling
  • International agricultural development
  • Agricultural and food policy
  • Food economics
  • Agricultural markets and price analysis
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Dr.Liu Xiangping - Assistant Professor   
xiangping_liu@txstate.edu   
Research interests:

  • Environmental Evaluation and Policies
  • Natural Resource Economics and Conservation
  • Applied Econometrics
  • Agricultural and Food Policy
  • Development Economics
  • Policy Interactions and Policy Conflicts
Dr_SudhakaranP_Headshot

Dr. Pratheesh Sudhakaran - Assistant Professor   
prateesh81@txstate.edu   
Research interests:

  • Aquaculture and fisheries economics
  • Food safety economics
  • Natural resource economics
  • Experimental economics
  • Production economics
  • Consumer behavior

Agricultural Education

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Dr. Ryan Anderson - Assistant Professor  
r_a461@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Agricultural Education Teacher preparation
  • Inservice Agricultural Education Teacher needs
  • STEM in Agricultural Education
  • Teaching & Learning of Agricultural Mechanics
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Dr. Doug Morrish - Professor in Agricultural Education and Assistant Dean, College of Applied Arts  
dm43@txstate.edu

Agricultural Mechanics

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Dr. Ryan Anderson - Assistant Professor  
r_a461@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Agricultural Education Teacher preparation
  • Inservice Agricultural Education Teacher needs
  • STEM in Agricultural Education
  • Teaching & Learning of Agricultural Mechanics

Animal Science

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Dr. Merrit Drewery - Assistant Professor  
m_d553@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Developmental programming as it relates to nutrition and environment
  • Optimization of prepubertal programs to increase later-life productivity
  • Evaluation of novel ingredients in existing livestock production systems
  • Identification of holistic health treatments to replace antibiotic usage
  • Interplay between agriculture and human nutrition
  • Beef and dairy cattle nutrition
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Dr. Cesar A. Rosales-Nieto - Assistant Professor  
cesar.rosales@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Understanding the fundamental events that regulate animal production and reproduction is key to improving our management to manipulate the environment to increase efficiency in livestock animals. Small ruminants (goats and sheep) provide a powerful model system to investigate reproductive consequences due to the similarity between sheep and human pregnancy and their developmental trajectories during fetal and postnatal life. 
  • understanding how environmental factors and nutritional manipulation at different stages of the physiological process (conception, gestation, early lactation) can influence fetal growth, milk and colostrum production, birth weight, and secondary consequences during postnatal development, the onset of puberty and reproductive efficiency of small ruminants (sheep and goats) reared in arid and semi-arid rangelands.
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Dr. Reagan Sims - Assistant Professor  
nsp46@txstate.edu  
Research interests:

  • Beef cattle production
  • Ruminant physiology and nutrition
  • Reproductive physiology and endocrinology
  • Bovine Respiratory Disease
  • Improving beef quality

Crops, Soils, and Horticulture

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Dr. Tina Waliczek Cade - Professor 
tc10@txstate.edu 
Research interests:

  • Human Issues in Horticulture/Horticultural Therapy/Sociohorticulture
  • Service-learning
  • Composting
  • Quality of Life
  • Invasive Species
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Dr. Ken Mix - Associate Professor 
km77@txstate.edu 
Research interests:

  • Soil Health
  • Botanical Insecticides
  • Small Farmers and Ranchers
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Dr. Nicole Wagner - Assistant Professor 
nwagner@txstate.edu 
Research interests:

  • Fruit and vegetable crop production
  • Applications for the Soil Foodweb