J.
IAN STEWART, Ph.D.
CONSULTANT - WATER IN AGRICULTURE
Career Picture Gallery
1957: Ian Stewart, UC Agricultural Extension Service Farm Advisor, Merced County, California, and cooperating farmer Chet Downey (l), show how Chloropicrin destroys "Soil Rot" of sweet potato.
Morphou, Cyprus, 1962: Then typical wild-flood irrigation of young citrus is wasteful. Overpumping resulted in sea water intrusion into aquifers, killing trees. FAO Irrigation Expert Ian Stewart and Cypriot Counterpart design and gain GOC approval for Water Use Improvement Project (WUIP).
Famagusta, Cyprus, 1963: WUIP Farm demo of Hose-Basin Irrigation System. A very efficient system operable by women and children. Counterpart Savvas Chimonides, 2nd right.
"Line Source" design cotton experiment featuring continuously lessening water supply outward to either side from the sprinkler line Water production function research at UC Research Station, Five-Points, CA, August, 1976.
Ian Stewart, Assc. Research Water Scientist, and Bob Hagan, Professor, Water Science prepare notes in bean field trials before farmers arrive for "Bean Day", UC Davis, August 1977.
Kiboko Research Station, Machakos District, Kenya, Short Rains season, 1981/2, line source experiment with variable water - beans (3 vars.); millets (2 vars.); maize; grain sorghum (6 vars.)
"Response Farming" on-farm verification trial, Kimutwa, Machakos District, Kenya. One of 32 farm trials with maize and beans over four growing seasons. Long Rains season, 1982. Overall, average maize yields in these trials were near doubled, from 1170 to 2300 kg/ha, and beans more than doubled, from 355 to 900 kg/ha.
UC Davis Picnic Day, April 1984: Robbie Stewart, founding director of WHARF displays banner to inform crowds of origins of WHARF and Response Farming.
Ian guardedly taking tea with Kit Carpenter, Consulting Irrigation Engineer at Parachinar, Kurram Tribal Agency, NW Pakistan - a supply point for Mujahiddin, very near Afghan border, 1987.
Celebratory lunch for newly completed irrigation well at Salarzai, Bajaur Tribal Agency, NW Pakistan. Ian in front of seated host who assures perfect hospitality, 1987.
East African elephants show resentment at road already punched through their home place, and fear that present farming methods which inexorably degrade soils, will drive poor farmers to slash and burn the vegetation which forms their habitat.
Book "Response Farming in Rainfed Agriculture" by J. Ian Stewart, issued May, 1988. Available in USA (bookpost) at US$12, or other countries (airmail) at US$16. Discount 10% for 3+ copies. Orders may be e-mailed or posted with payment to WHARF, PO Box 1158, Davis, CA, 95617, USA. Shipment on receipt of payment.
A Masai giraffe gains new hope from the positive results of response farming verification trials - hope that the new methodology will make low resource farms of the area sustainable at last, eliminating the farmers' needs to slash & burn the forests.
Bangalore, India, June 1988: AICRPAM scientists training to use the WHARF rainfall analysis program to develop response farming plans for all of India.
Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand, India. Noted agrometeorologist Dr. P.D. Mistry displays beautifully tended meteorological station - a vital link in developing response farming India-wide under the aegis of AICRPAM.
Mrs. R.P.K. Kannangara, Agrometeorological Officer, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka presents "Response Farming in Sri Lanka" at international meetings, Brisbane, Australia, 1990.
Oct. 1998: USAID sponsored planning visit with EARO (Ethiopian Agr. Res. Org.) scientists for proposed 6-year joint EARO/WHARF/CIMMYT Response Farming Project to stabilize and increase food crop yields in dryland farming zones of that country. Principals include (l) Dr. Aberra Deressa, Mngr, MARC (Melkassa Agr. Res. Ctr.), Dr. Kidane Giorgis, EARO Director, Dryland Agriculture; and Habtamu Admassu, Agronomist (r).
Oct. 1998: EARO scientists
Dr. Aberra Deressa (r) and Dr. Kidane Giorgis, assisted by researchers Girma
Mamo, Agrometeorologist (l) and Habtamu Admassu, Agronomist, brief me on the
the dryland farming research program presently underway at the Melkassa
Agricultural Research Center in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.