Rate My Professor Graciela Andrango

Graciela Andrango is an Associate Professor of Ag Economics in the School of Agriculture at Western Illinois University, a position she has held since spring 2017. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. from Kansas State University and her B.S. from the Pan-American Agricultural School, El Zamorano. Before joining WIU, she served in the Agricultural Economics Unit and as National Coordinator of the Agricultural Economics R&D Team at Ecuador's National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP). Her research interests center on technology adoption, human capital, and extension in agriculture, with expertise in agribusiness economics, agricultural development, development economics, rural development, and bioenergy. She contributes to soybean research, focusing on economic considerations for sustainable practices, and supervises agricultural internships, visiting sites to support students.

Andrango's publications include 'Estimating the supply of oilseed acreage for sustainable aviation fuel production: taking account of farmers’ willingness to adopt' (2021), 'Functional Foods: Fad or Path to Prosperity?' (2020), 'Value-Chains in the Andes: Upgrading for Ecuador's Blackberry Producers' (2019), 'Mexico’s Agricultural Sector' (2019), 'Examining farmers’ willingness to grow and allocate land for oilseed crops for biofuel production' (2018), and 'Assessing extension and outreach education levels for biofuel feedstock production in the Western United States' (2016). She received the Sylvia Lane Mentorship Fund from the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) in 2018 and served as Chair-Elect for the Latin American Section of AAEA in 2019-2020. At WIU, she teaches AGRI 220: Introduction to Agribusiness Concepts, AGEC 349: Agribusiness Management, AGEC 437: U.S. Agricultural Trade, and AGRI 340, and advises student organizations including the Agriculture Communicators of Tomorrow. She participates in college committees within the College of Business and Technology and delivers public webinars, such as 'Agriculture Around the World' in 2025, drawing from her Ecuadorian upbringing where farming shaped her appreciation for agriculture.