Dr. Nazia Arbab joined UMES Extension February 20 as an agribusiness and resource economist specialist. She brings 14 years of teaching and research experience to UMES, most recently from Rutgers University’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics.
In her new post, she will “address inequities in the distribution of benefits and costs of land and agricultural management, sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods, and policy decisions across Delmarva.” Arbab will be applying novel economic theory, models and methods to address these challenges by informing the development of strategies and policies that foster resilient, adaptive and sustainable social, economic and agricultural systems.
“Dr. Arbab completes the Community and Economic Development group within UMES Extension,” said Dr. Enrique N. Escobar, associate dean for extension. “We are pleased to have her join the team and look forward to her contributing her expertise to our training activities.”
Arbab’s research has centered on the economics of land management practices, ecosystem services valuation, sustainable agricultural management, and natural resource management and policy. She is developing successful research by applying economic theory, models and methods in a natural resource context to inform local, regional and global issues.
“I am particularly interested in addressing increasing uncertainty, complexity and risk as a consequence of climate change impacts on agricultural systems and changing disturbance regimes, shifting local and global markets, diversifying stakeholder values and increasing demands to balance the provisioning of multiple ecosystem services with maintaining agricultural resilience across multiple ownerships and policy environments,” Arbab said.
Arbab holds a doctorate in natural resource economics from West Virginia University, a master’s degree in applied sociology from the University of Texas at Dallas, a master’s degree in economics from Quaid-i-Azam University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sindh, both in Pakistan.
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.
