Dr. Erika Styger is a tropical agronomist and the director of the Climate-Resilient Farming Systems Program in the Department of Global
Development at Cornell University. The program mission is to improve tropical smallholder farming systems through ecological approaches for
greater productivity and resilience to climate change. It is a project-based program, combining research and community-based development
approaches. Dr. Styger collaborates with partners ranging from local community-based organizations to international organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and most recently, in the USA.
Dr. Styger is a development practitioner, scientist, educator and mentor. She specializes in tropical cropping and farming systems, agroforestry, agrobiodiversity, alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture, land regeneration, adaptation to climate change, participatory approaches, and for the past 15 years has focused on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), an agro-ecological and climate-smart rice production methodology. She is also a Faculty Fellow in the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
