My name is Barbara Baraibar and I am a researcher specialized in weed management and sustainable agriculture. I am originally from Barcelona, in Spain but I lived in Lleida for many years before spending almost 5 years in the United States (at Penn State). Now I'm back in Lleida and I am working on a project that aims at bridging research efforts and the productive sector through assessing organic farmers needs in research and building a farmer-led research network. I am also a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Lleida (as of November 2020).
My interest in agriculture started while in high school, when the school's career counselor told me that my tests suggested I would enjoy a job that could combine indoor and outdoor activities and he mentioned a degree called Agronomic Engineering. At that point neither me or him had any idea of how that conversation would shape my entire life. After lots of reading and thinking I decided to go to Lleida to pursue the Agronomy degree and I loved it! There I was, a city girl, learning about how to grow crops and raise livestock. Everything was so new to me I enjoyed every class (or almost). While studying I started doing research at the weeds lab and later on the entomology lab and I began to realize that I liked doing research. Research allowed me to learn every day, be creative and help farmers to grow the food that we all need to live..
When I finished my undergraduate studies and I started working at a farmers coop, Unio de Pagesos, where I made hundreds of phone interviews with growers and learned a lot about their concerns and also about their cropping systems. While working there I started a Master's degree on Organic Agriculture at the University of Barcelona and by the end of it I got an internship to go to a research institute in organic farming in Switzerland, the FiBL. I spent 4 months there and while I was there I decided I wanted to work in research so, when I got back I started to look for funding to do my PhD and I ended up going back to Lleida.
During my PhD I studied organisms that eat weed seeds in cereal fields of Lleida such as harvester ants, carabid beetles and mice, and the huge impact that they can have on weed populations. I also had the opportunity to do research in Germany and even in the Philippines, at the International Rice Research Institute. I enjoyed the field work, the data analysis and the writing, even if it was very hard at times (and I think all PhD students can relate to this!). But I loved what I was doing and specially sharing my research with farmers and scientists. If you are interested in learning more about weed seed predation, you can read more about this research here.
After finishing my PhD and taking a break to have my daughter, I was offered the opportunity to join Dave Mortensen's lab at Penn State and work on cover crops with an amazing group of people. So, my husband, my daughter and I moved to State College, PA, in November 2014 and I worked on cover crop mixtures and weed management in organic systems until August 2019. You can learn more about the cover crop cocktails project and my research here.
In summer 2019 we came back to Catalonia (Spain) and I have been exploring where to go from here. Besides settling back into our "new country", I have also working on an old project of mine that aims at bridging research and production and specially in the organic sector. I have designed and I am currently sending out a survey to organic growers in Catalonia to try to understand what their research needs are and how we can collaborate in doing on-farm, farmer-led research. I am excited to say that as of April 2021, 162 producers have responded to the survey and I'm already talking to some of them to make this project (and dream) come true.
In November 2020, I got awarded a Beatriu de Pinós fellowship and I started working at the University of Lleida on a project that looks at how soil properties, fertilizer and the soil microbiome influences weed - crop competition. You can learn more about it here.
I hope you find my research interesting and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
In summer 2019 we came back to Catalonia (Spain) and I have been exploring where to go from here. Besides settling back into our "new country", I have also working on an old project of mine that aims at bridging research and production and specially in the organic sector. I have designed and I am currently sending out a survey to organic growers in Catalonia to try to understand what their research needs are and how we can collaborate in doing on-farm, farmer-led research. I am excited to say that as of April 2021, 162 producers have responded to the survey and I'm already talking to some of them to make this project (and dream) come true.
In November 2020, I got awarded a Beatriu de Pinós fellowship and I started working at the University of Lleida on a project that looks at how soil properties, fertilizer and the soil microbiome influences weed - crop competition. You can learn more about it here.
I hope you find my research interesting and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!