José Franco, PhD
José oversees Savanna Institute’s innovative research department, which includes programs in tree crop improvement, landscape ecology, ecosystems science, imagery analysis, and cropping systems.
He grew up on the fringe of suburban and rural life in far west Texas and enjoyed exploring the desert and mountain landscapes of the southwest. He comes to the Savanna Institute from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service where he was an agroecologist/agronomist researching continuous living cover systems, perennial grains and forages, agroforestry, and conservation cropping systems broadly.
José has a PhD from Texas A&M University where he worked on specialty crop production, namely watermelons and tomatoes, and functionally diverse intercropping systems. He enjoys testing the limits of what he can grow in his gardens and is based in Madison.
