Dr. Alejandro Plastina, Associate Professor/Extension Economist in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, was recently Farm Foundation’s first Agricultural Economics Fellow. Dr. Plastina’s area of specialization is agricultural production and technology, with an emphasis on farm business and financial management. His recent publications have addressed the economics of conservation practices such as cover crops and subfield land-use change from corn-soybean rotations into switchgrass, as well as agricultural productivity analyses.

The Agricultural Economics Fellowship is the latest recognition for Plastina, who also received the ISU Office of the President Excellence in Remote Instruction Award in 2021; the ISU Extension and Outreach Creativity in Service to All Iowans Award in 2020; the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Distinguished Extension Program Award in 2019; the ISU ANR Programming Innovation Award in 2018; and the ISU Extension and Outreach Impacting Iowa Award in 2014. He holds a Master of Science in Statistics and a doctorate in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.