This International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we celebrate the achievements of female researchers working with ACIAR across South Asia to bring about meaningful and enduring change.
Through India and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, these researchers are working, often with female farmers, to strengthen agricultural systems to improve environments, livelihoods and lives.
Across these stories, issues of women's equality emerge in different ways. For some, it is about access to education, research pathways or technology. For others, it is about being recognised as decision-makers, leaders and innovators. Together, the following profiles show how equality in science is not a single pathway, but a combination of opportunities that allow women's expertise to shape outcomes for families, communities and food systems.
Dr Dipika Das is changing traditional expectations around gender roles to create new opportunities for women
Social scientist Dr Dipika Das brings a human lens to agricultural systems, working to increase productivity while advancing more equitable societies through women's empowerment.
Her research into gendered norms has taken her across several ACIAR-related projects in South Asia.
A key step towards equality is working with communities to recognise behaviours considered 'normal' for men and women, she said. 'In patriarchal societies, one can become so accustomed to long-standing practices that discrimination goes unnoticed. But if people are shown different ways of operating and given the tools to support it, there can be transformative change.
'I want to create a space for women farmers to be recognised as leaders, decision-makers and innovators who contribute to more resilient farming communities - and who can recognise what is fair or unfair to them,' she said.
Dr Das's work in this area began with an ACIAR project with smallholder irrigation farmers on the Eastern Gangetic Plains. This progressed to an ACIAR John Allwright PhD Fellowship at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).
Working with both men and women, the 'ground-up' research involved surveys and group discussions about daily work and the division of labour.
'It opened my eyes to how deeply social norms could impact farming operations,' she said. 'And the women themselves realised the extent of their burden. They were working in farming but had little say in decision-making. They carried out long and labour-intensive tasks like weeding and harvesting, in addition to their domestic responsibilities.'
Training sessions, including role-play, demonstrated alternative ways of working and helped shift established mindsets. Changing traditional expectations around gender roles has led to new opportunities for women and men, as well as more productive farms.
Now, Dr Das is applying the same principles in Pakistan through an ACIAR scoping project led by the USQ Ag Tech Adoption team, which aims to strengthen the pulse production sector while promoting more gender-inclusive practices.
Professor Sara Kamaludeen is advancing environmental remediation through applied science
The global impact of Professor Sara Parwin Banu Kamaludeen's research into cleaning up contaminated soils and water can be traced back more than 30 years to her first project with ACIAR.
That work focused on remediating land and water polluted by carcinogenic chromium from tannery waste in southern India and South Australia. It led to an ACIAR John Allwright PhD Fellowship at the University of Adelaide and research that would define her career.
Through this work, Professor Kamaludeen identified microbes responsible for ongoing chromium contamination and developed practical, cost-effective remediation methods. These included the use of non-food flower and timber species that absorb heavy metals, locking chromium in their roots and removing it from the food chain, while also providing an income source for farmers.
The findings informed management approaches at contaminated sites and helped vegetable farmers build the evidence base needed to seek compensation, demonstrating how environmental remediation could be integrated with livelihood outcomes.
Professor Kamaludeen said her first ACIAR project was a turning point, providing international exposure and the confidence to extend her work through global research networks. These connections were strengthened through ACIAR Alumni 360 and ACIAR Learn, which supported collaboration across institutions and disciplines.
In subsequent projects, her patented 'Vetiver Floating Treatment Wetland' technology has been used to clean industrial wastewater in India. Using floating pontoons planted with vetiver (a grass known for its dense root system), the system removed up to 98% of metals, including chromium, nickel and zinc from waterways.
'Vetiver is also effective for soil remediation, preventing erosion and supporting carbon sequestration,' she said.
Now based at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Professor Kamaludeen is extending her research into climate-focused agroforestry systems in southern India, working with tribal farmer producer organisations and coffee growers.
Ms Manita Raut is addressing inequalities in gender and class to improve life quality
Ms Manita Raut grew up in a family that supported her into higher education, but in her hometown in eastern Nepal, she saw inequality all around her.
Despite laws to the contrary, property is often inherited down the male line and women have limited opportunities to own land. In farming, decision-making remains largely male-dominated, even though women contribute significantly to farm labour.
Addressing these inequalities has driven Ms Raut's research, which began with an undergraduate degree in social work and a Master of Sustainable Development.
She later worked on several projects with the International Water Management Institute, including an ACIAR-supported initiative focused on irrigation for smallholder farmers, many of them women. 'There are inequities based on gender or caste in agricultural communities. Through my research, I am looking to break down barriers and produce a pathway forward,' she said.
With ACIAR, Ms Raut helped establish small farmer collectives to share groundwater pumping irrigation technology.
Now an ACIAR John Allwright PhD scholar at the Australian National University, she is tracking the uptake and impacts of these initiatives.
Replacing heavy diesel systems, electric pumps have been an important advance for women because they are lighter and easier to move. Shared technology has also reduced labour demands.
'It has been exciting to see how costs and labour can be reduced if technology is shared,' said Ms Raut. 'And this is important for women farmers who are also involved in care and domestic work.'
Despite these gains, Ms Raut remains concerned about entrenched structural inequalities that limit ownership opportunities for women and people from lower castes.
This is why she is looking towards a policymaking role. 'I would like to work on a regional level and contribute to decisions about resource funding allocation in line with smallholder farmer priorities,' she said.
Dr Taslima Zahan has a vision for improved farm productivity and profits
People have always been at the centre of Dr Taslima Zahan's work. Through an association with ACIAR that has spanned 13 years and 2 continents, she has aimed to improve profits for farmers and strengthen food security through better agronomy, more diverse crop types and risk-mitigation strategies.
In 2012, Dr Zahan's ACIAR-supported PhD examined managing weeds in conservation agriculture systems in Bangladesh. This was followed by an ACIAR-Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute project that introduced minimum tillage and other practices to improve soil health for long-term benefits and reduce reliance on fertilisers for yield gains.
In coastal regions, this work helped diversify farming systems, introducing sunflower and sweet gourd into rice rotations to spread risk and improve profitability.
Dr Zahan's focus on mitigating risk and boosting productivity in coastal Bangladesh and West Bengal continued through another ACIAR-partnered project led by Dr Mohammed Mainuddin at CSIRO. Among its major activities, the project mapped soils for salinity and used crop modelling to identify new crop options for farmers.
'It was really impactful and we saw a clear difference with once barren fields covered by several types of crops including zero-till potatoes and garlic,' she said.
Dr Zahan said her capacity to deliver meaningful research was strengthened through an ACIAR John Dillon Fellowship and participation in the ACIAR Learn program. 'This helped me design and plan research in a better way and develop skills in presenting the findings,' she said.
Now a research fellow at Murdoch University in Western Australia, Dr Zahan is looking at strategies to help ensure new technologies and initiatives are adopted. 'My vision is to prescribe farmers with a good package that will help them to sustain their productivity as well as enhance their profitability,' she said.
Creating the conditions for women to lead in science
Together, these stories reflect the many ways women contribute to science and research-for-development across South Asia - from early-career researchers to established leaders, and from laboratories to farms and policy forums. They show that advancing women's equality in science is not only about representation, but also about creating the conditions for women's knowledge to drive lasting change. On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, these researchers demonstrate what that looks like in practice.
