icburke@wsu.edu rpande@chess.

ofc

(Dr. Burke,Washington state uni)

I am a full scholar Bsc Agriculture graduate from Tribhuvan university,Nepal and have acquired

some on hand skills in several topics of agriculture through my 2.5+ years of work experience

as a programme officer from CHESS(Child Health And Environment Save Society)NEPAL. I

seek to pursue MS in Agricultural crop and soil science and have humbly written this email to

make an inquiry about possible GRA/GTA opportunities under your supervision for spring 2023.

While browsing through university’s website I came to know that you are currently
working upon prickly lettuce weeds management and in this regard I would like to
mention that I have experience of recommending weed management practices of corn
field(Rampur Composite, Manakamana5) in the districts of Nepal where I recommended
using the botanical pesticides (locally called Hamal Jhol-1, Hamal Jhol-2), but I would
also like to propose an idea about prickly lettuce that as I have some local skills to even
use it as an edible plant such as using it as a vegetable by using its 1/3rd of portion
starting from the tip and at a juvenile stage as bitterness grows along with maturity and
some ways of it's cooking which i learnt from local villagers and we can benefit from
even an invasive species same as the way Australia benefited from invasive cane
toads during early 20th century.
Amidst organizing research oriented colleagues at different phases of my agri career
and inspiring them to do something creative I got involved in publishing two research
journals and a Book on Plant Breeding, Plant Pathology and Farm Management
respectively with the help of our respected professors
I am an eligible person to help you in your upcoming project's obligations and obviously
it would be a great learning experience for me to learn under an experienced person like
you.
Lastly some of practical skills that I am confident about are qualitative and quantitative
soil testing, isolation and identification of Trichoderma and pathogens along with pest
respectively, screening of crops for breeding and Vegetative propagation of citrus plants