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Nethmi Bathige

Education:
B.A. Biology and Geography, Macalester College (2022)
Biography:

Nethmi Bathige is a second-year MA student in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky. She is originally from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her work focuses on food systems and agriculture in Sri Lanka. She has previously researched food security and dietary diversity among organic and conventional tea smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka's Wet Zone regions. She has also worked in urban food environments, where she interned at a food bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a community urban farm in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Nethmi was a Zero Hunger Intern at the Congressional Hunger Center. Nethmi's current research includes looking at climate-resilient agriculture among smallholder farming communities in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. Her MA thesis project uses a feminist political ecology and intersectionality lens to study climate adaptation and water management among women home gardeners and small farmers in Sri Lanka. 

Research Interests:
Critical Agrarian Studies
Political Ecology
Climate Smart Agriculture
South Asia
Climate Change Adaptation
Dietary Diversity
Irrigation
Water Management
University Appointments

Graduate Teaching Assistant : GEO 261 Global Dynamics of Health & Disease (Fall 2022, Fall 2023), GEO 109 Digital Mapping (Spring 2023)

Selected Publications:

Academic Publications

Bathige, Nethmi, "Food Security and Dietary Diversity among Conventional and Organic Tea-Smallholders in Central and Southern Sri Lanka" (2022). Geography Honors Projects. 72.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/geography_honors/72

Perera Bathige, N.S. and Moseley, W.G. (2023), Snapshot of a crisis: food security and dietary diversity levels among disrupted conventional and long-term organic tea-smallholders in Sri Lanka. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12511

Public Scholarship

Bathige, N., & Moseley, W. (2022, Aug 12,). Drawing the wrong lessons from Sri Lanka's organic farming experience (commentary). Mongabay https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/drawing-the-wrong-lessons-from-sri-lankas-organic-farming-experience-commentary/

2022: Interviewed by Mother Jones Magazine: Tucker Carlson Says He Knows Why Sri Lanka Fell. Don't Believe Him. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/tucker-carlson-says-he-knows-why-sri-lanka-fell-dont-believe-him/