Samjhana Khanal (29), from Nepal, is doing a doctorate in plant genetics with a biotechnology minor at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on “healthy germplasms of vegetables” and aims to address the yield production and nutritional deficit especially evident in women and children by developing resistant seeds. She is highly motivated by her own experiences, wanting to understand the core causes of farmers’ agricultural problems and to improve agricultural productivity.
Samjhana has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to community service and being an advocate for social justice and empowerment through agri-entrepreneurship, vegetable gardening, and education. She founded and is president of the Women’s Initiatives for Sustainable Agriculture & Environment (WISE), Nepal, 2021, whose purpose is to maintain social inclusion, women empowerment, and equality through sustainable agriculture.
In her graduate studies, Samjhana has used organizational platforms for gender equity: she has organized training sessions and supported programs related to kitchen gardening, plant disease diagnosis, women’s empowerment through agriculture, schoolgirls’ reproductive hygiene, earthquake victim support program, and girl's trafficking awareness, to name a few.
In addition to her studies and volunteering work, Samjhana has worked as a research assistant with the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology based in Tübingen Germany and with FORWARD Nepal; a national NGO implementing projects focused on poor households, women, Dalits, and children.
Samjhana says that “Being a socially motivated scientist, my goal is to engage in addressing the need of underserved communities and contributing to achieving sustainable development goals such as poverty reduction and zero hunger through vegetable farming.”
