I have been working in agricultural development projects and farmers for the last 11 years. I received my PhD degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Connecticut. I developed two decision support tools to alleviate the impacts of climate change to bring additional water supplies to households and socio-economic benefits to smallholder farmers in developing countries. Through the project Water and Food security in Ethiopia, I study the impact of climate change to the productivity of smallholder farmers who are exclusively dependent on rainfed agriculture. My MSc degree research was to analysis the trace elements of groundwater for quality monitoring where rural people of India depend on well water for drinking purposes. I also worked in the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funded Water Resources Management Support Program (WRMSP) to teach farmers how to develop water use and crop plans. In International Water Management Institute (IWMI) – Tashkent Office as a research assistant I collaborated the projects related to socio-technical studies of Water Users Associations in transboundary regions of Central Asia.

I am working in the project of innovative approach to integrate precision agriculture (PA) technologies for future farm workers and agriculture. This is multidisciplinary human-technology partnership program. I work with Dr. Joshua Faulkner, Dr. Donna Rizzo and Dr. Asim Zia at UVM and Dr. Ray Bryant and Dr. Paul Adler from USDA – ARS. PA tools help farm management to connect human-technology partnership. Developing AI algorithms, we would be able to convert big agriculture localized data into usable farm recommendations so that farmers can make better decisions. These tools have potential to increase agricultural productivity and efficiency while preserving land and water resources as well as promote environmental sustainability. My role in this project is to develop AI algorithms to study the relationships between Remote sensing hyperspectral and multispectral imageries with soil health data collected from local farms. This would help advance foundational understanding of implications of PA and trustworthy, adoption of AI in agriculture.  

I grew up in Fergana Valley, surrounded by beautiful mountains which is the heart of Central Asia where agriculture is the main backbone of food security and environmental sustainability. Vermont is an ideal place to work and live which also reminds my hometown. Working with farmers whom each feed other 166 people in the USA, you feel you are the part of community who supports, encourages and protects the viability of agriculture and sustainability of environment. I would see my future in academic research in agriculture-human-environment systems. 

Advisors: Joshua Faulkner, Donna Rizzo, Asim Zia