Shifting the odds of dryland farming: The career of B.A. Stewart

Abstract

Raised on a small dairy farm in semi-arid western Oklahoma, Dr. B.A. Stewart was involved in agricultural challenges at an early age. Attending Oklahoma A&M College in Stillwater, he became enthralled by the power of chemistry and biology to address agricultural problems. He began a soil science career, first in Stillwater and later with the then new USDA Agricultural Research Service in Fort Collins, CO. Working on nitrogen pollution from feedlots, he developed new nitrogen assay methods, became involved in environmental work, and assisted in focusing the early work of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1963, Stewart became Director of the USDA ARS Laboratory at Bushland, TX, where he developed programs in nitrogen and phosphorus management in dryland and irrigated agriculture, became a recognized proponent of soil and water conservation, worked with the beef cattle industry, and developed programs in dryland and irrigated cropping systems, including evapotranspiration measurement and modeling. Stewart became involved internationally through his work with USAID and ICARDA, service as Editor-in-Chief for the SSSA Journal, and editing of the book series, Advances in Soil Science, from 1985 to 2018. This led to the 1988 International Conference on Dryland Farming at Bushland. The 460 participants from 52 countries and 36 states defined the challenges in research and policy to develop future successful dryland farming. In 1993, Stewart retired from USDA ARS and became the first director of the Dryland Agriculture Institute at West Texas A&M University, teaching and researching with 74 successful M.S. and Ph.D. students over 24 years. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Introduction: Water, soil, crops, and people in a changing climate: the agronomic legacy of Dr. B.A. Stewart

“…Evett and Steiner (2020) described how exposure to college‐level classes in biology and chemistry steered B.A. Stewart to a 60+ year career as a soil scientist and educator, with many of those working as a USDA‐ARS researcher located at Bushland, TX.…”