Spotlight: Ramneet Kaur

Meet Ramneet: Cultivating a Future Rooted in Sustainability

Meet Ramneet Kaur, a Ph.D. student in Plant and Soil Science at Texas Tech University, conducting her research at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center in Lubbock. Originally from Punjab, India, she grew up in a farming family whose resilience and optimism taught her to appreciate the dedication behind every harvest. Witnessing firsthand the challenges farmers face, especially with changing weather and soil conditions, sparked her lifelong commitment to making agriculture more sustainable and resilient.

She earned her B.Sc. in Agriculture (Hons.) from Khalsa College, Amritsar, and her M.Sc. in Soil Science from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. During her master’s research, she worked on improving nitrogen fertilizer management in direct-seeded rice using a leaf color chart, helping farmers optimize fertilizer use while protecting the environment.

Today, Ramneet’s Ph.D. research focuses on developing sustainable and resilient sorghum–cotton cropping systems for the semi-arid regions of the Texas Great Plains. She studies how regenerative practices like no-tillage and crop rotation influence soil health, water retention, and greenhouse gas emissions under both dryland and irrigated systems. Her goal is to design economically viable and environmentally sustainable cropping systems that conserve water, enhance soil vitality, and strengthen the resilience of semi-arid agriculture.

Ramneet hopes to join the agriculture-based industry, where she can combine her field-based research expertise with innovation to support sustainable soil and crop management on a larger scale.

When she’s not in the field or the lab, she loves exploring new places and trying new foods. Her curiosity, whether in science or travel, drives her to keep learning, growing, and finding joy in discovery.