Dr Usha C Thomas

Dr Usha C. Thomas is a Professor of Agronomy at Kerala Agricultural University, with over two decades of experience in agricultural teaching and research. Her work includes hydroponics, forage production and hi-tech cultivation. She is the Principal Investigator of the HiTech Unit under the NABARD-funded Rural Business Incubation Centre, K-AgTech LaunchPad, where NFT, Dutch bucket and other cultivation systems with automation are being established. Her postgraduate and doctoral scholars are working on fertigation and sensor-based automated irrigation for vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, okra and cucumber in polyhouses. This work is being advanced in collaboration with Western Sydney University, Australia. She has also led research on low-cost hydroponic fodder production and received the KAU Best Researcher Award for 2025.