Dr. Shikha Thapa Magar
Executive Director
Dr. Shikha Thapa Magar, a distinguished expert in Sustainable Agriculture from Nepal, serves as the Executive Director at NDRI. Holding a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Hebei Agricultural University, her expertise spans farming systems, climate-smart agriculture, value chain analysis, disaster risk management, and post-harvest solutions.
Dr. Thapa’s career is marked by transformative leadership across international development initiatives. As Chief Community Officer at the SCOLAR Network—a youth platform bridging the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) region—she established 15 youth hubs across nine countries, empowering young leaders to address local challenges. Her commitment to gender-responsive climate action is evident in her role as Team Lead for the UN Women project “Research on Climate-Smart Technologies to Reduce Women’s Time Poverty and Work Drudgery in Nepal” at the Institute of Himalayan Risk Reduction (IHRR).
As Team Lead and Sustainable Agriculture/NRM Expert, she spearheaded the Climate-Resilient Farming Plan and Comprehensive Value Chain Assessments under ICIMOD’s UNDP-funded RERAS initiative. Her fieldwork in Nepal’s Jumla district involved designing projects, conducting Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) to inform actionable strategies. Earlier, as a Sustainable Agriculture Expert with Practical Action Consulting (PAC), she contributed to the CASA project, expanding her on-ground impact across 14 districts through extensive FGDs and KIIs.
Academically, Dr. Thapa serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at HICAST, teaching Sustainable Agriculture, and lends her expertise as a peer reviewer for journals such as Agricultural Systems, Environmental Challenges, and Scientific African. Actively engaged in global advocacy, she is a committee member of the NRNA Agriculture Committee, driving initiatives to advance sustainable practices in Nepal and beyond.
Combining rigorous research, grassroots engagement, and policy innovation, Dr. Thapa remains a pivotal figure in bridging academic insights with practical solutions for agricultural resilience, climate change and gender equity.
