The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology welcomes assistant professor Dr. Sangeeta Bansal to its Plant Science Department in a new position that emphasizes soil health and sustainability.

She teaches the department's introduction to irrigated soils (PLANT 70), crop nutrition (PLANT 101) classes and soils lab (PLANT 172L). This combined curriculum examines the roles of biological and mineral matter in soil, plant and water relationships, nutrient recommendations for different crops, and soil and plant tissue evaluation and analysis techniques.

She is developing a course on Soil Health (PLANT 170T), which is starting spring 2024. This new course will provide theoretical knowledge as well as practical training in understanding, assessing and interpreting soil health based on multiple management strategies. Additionally, it will focus on recognizing the barriers faced by growers in terms of adopting different soil health management strategies.

A Fresno State alumna with a graduate degree in plant science, she received her doctorate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her undergraduate degree from Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India. Most recently she has done postdoctoral work at UC Davis and South Dakota State University.

Her research has focused on different dimensions of soil health, and investigating interactions among soil physical, chemical and biological indicators.

She has specifically studied the effects of regenerative practices such as incorporation of cover crops, organic amendments, no-till, and crop diversification, and how these practices can contribute toward improving soil carbon sequestration, drought resilience and groundwater recharge.

Her crop-livestock integrated research has assessed different fractions of soil carbon and nitrogen, as well as microbial community level benefits from grazing animals.