Deepa Devkota | Nepal

Deepa is a scientist based at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) where she works as an agricultural economist and is the team leader of several national projects.

Over 2015 to 2019 Deepa interacted with small holding farming communities to understand the adoption factors and assess the impact of improved varieties of maize, potato, and wheat released by NARC. During the interactions, Deepa found a lot of agricultural technologies are not female friendly resulting in gender differences in adoption. She went on to work as a gender specialist in the Farmers’ Behaviour Insights Project funded by ACIAR and in a Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) funded by the World Bank in Nepal.

Deepa completed Bachelors of Agriculture (2011) and Masters in Agricultural Economics (2014) at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. As a PhD candidate at the Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal, Deepa is busy planning research on gender roles in agricultural technology adoption decisions.

As an early career researcher Deepa has already published 11 journal articles and 5 booklets focused on adoption factors of maize, wheat and potato varieties and the adoption of crop and livestock insurance in Nepal.

Being a mom to a four-year old daughter Deepa says that the PhD is far easier than handling toddler tantrums. Juggling work, study and parenting, Deepa loves to travel and explore rural Nepal. By visiting different parts of the country Deepa gains insight into real agricultural scenarios and better understands how she can make a positive impact upon the livelihoods of small holder farmers in her country.