Dr. Prem Bhandari recently joined UMES Extension as an agritourism and value-added agricultural marketing specialist. He brings over 25 years of experience in the design, implementation and quantitative analysis of large scale social research, most recently as the managing director of the Global Research Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In his extension post at UMES, Bhandari will work as part of a collaborative interdisciplinary team encompassing several programs and will also conduct a nationally recognized statewide extension education and applied research program focused on improving livelihoods and enhancing local, regional and statewide economic development efforts, with a specific focus on agritourism and value-added agriculture.
“Dr. Bhandari’s arrival at UMES is long awaited as a subject expert to complement our economic education extension team,” said Dr. Enrique N. Escobar, associate dean for extension. “He will coordinate agritourism education and research efforts and will actively participate in the planning and implementation of an agritourism conference this year.”
Bhandari, a native of Nepal, cites socio-economic and cultural determinants of demographic behaviors, food security, social inequalities, rural social change, population and the environment, farm technology adoption, agricultural marketing and the sociology of agriculture his other interests.
The analyst, researcher and faculty member spent 16 years with the University of Michigan in various capacities and held posts with the Agriculture and Forestry University in Nepal, the University of Alberta, the Grant MacEwan University in Canada and the Tribhuvan University in Nepal. Bhandari has also been employed on grants and projects by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USAID and the National Institute of Health.
Bhandari holds a doctorate degree in rural sociology and demography from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in rural development planning from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and a bachelor’s in agricultural economics from the Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He has over 50 peer-reviewed articles published in top journals along with several book chapters. In addition, Bhandari is an editorial member of three scientific journals and an occasional reviewer of nearly 20 scientific journals.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, 410-621-3850, gcstephens@umes.edu.
Photo by Todd Dudek, agricultural communication, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, 410-651-6707, tdudek@umes.edu.
