Agriculture was never part of the plan for John Samura. Growing up with his farmer grand-parents in Sierra Leone, he balked at a future in the fields. Instead, he wanted to do something with engineering, a path that suited his dad, a long-time engineer, just fine. It’s what Samura knew; firmly in his comfort zone.
Over time, the desire to effect real change on his home soil grew. He wondered if perhaps he could wield engineering not to escape agriculture, but to trans-form it and solve critical problems back home, such as deforestation, water conservation issues, and negative effects stemming from climate change.
Samura took action, heading to Njala University in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he studied agriculture. Post-graduation, Samura secured a job as a research assistant on a USAID-funded Feed the Future Aqua-culture project, where he worked on engineering and establishing fish ponds, and eventually monitoring and evaluation, learning how agricultural and aquaculture systems worked together. It was on the job where he would meet his mentor and future advisor, Dr. Colby Silvert, now an assistant professor in AGNR. Meeting Silvert at this stage of life was a huge catalyst. Samura knew he wanted more, but needed specialized education to drive real systemic change.
“Colby encouraged me to apply to the Extension Education Master’s Program at UMD,” Samura said. “This program opened my eyes to how Extension can affect behavior change in communities.”
Samura was accepted and made plans to come to the U.S., however he didn’t have much experience doing research, which is an integral part of the Master’s experience. A perfect opportunity to build his research skillset and broaden his understanding of human behavior emerged as he was selected to join the university’s prestigious Global FEWture Alliance, a project designed to aid underserved communities at the nexus of food, energy, water, climate, and health. His focus was on understanding why farmers weren’t adopting biochar, the carbon-rich, charcoal-like remains of burnt organic matter, for enriching their soil.
“I received a one-year fellowship, two weeks of which I spent in Tanzania, where I looked at the three interdependent sectors of food, energy, and water in real-world scenarios,” Samura said. “I ultimately looked directly at biochar and how it can be used for energy consumption and to produce nutrients that can be applied to the soil. I wanted to understand the factors that stopped or reduced farmer access or interest in biochar-the Extension side.”
Following his fellowship, he returned to Maryland and worked with Silver to identify rainwater harvesting as a research topic. He lasered in on the “Diffusion of Innovation” framework, which, according to Samura, “looks at the innovation itself, looks at societal compatibility, and then looks at the social context it has been applied to.” It ultimately serves to explain how innovations are popularized over time and why people adopt or reject new technologies.
“Here in Maryland, I looked at the education and income level of the individual, and then explored social norms and regulations around bacterial contamination issues that come from harvesting crops with rainwater.” Samura said. “My goal was to educate the public on all of these factors so that they can make their own informed decision about rainwater harvesting.”
Samura was recently selected as a 2026 Future Leaders Forum Fellow by the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development. At the time of selection, he was the only Master’s student standing alongside nine PhD candidates. He has now graduated and was accepted into a PhD program for the Fall where he will focus on understanding farmers’ social systems and how day-to-day challenges can be resolved through Extension partnerships.
“I want to know what they want,” Samura said. “I will prod and provoke farmers to help them develop culturally appropriate and sustainable solutions.”
For Samura, driving real change isn't about importing bright ideas from the West and dropping them into developing communities. And his personal success isn’t measured by a high-paying corporate job—it’s all about building a toolkit of social understanding and technical expertise. It’s about sitting down with local farmers as equals, helping them realize which ideas are best suited to their social environment and enabling them to build their own resilience. If he can do that, he’s confident that he’ll leave the world a better place, and just maybe, inspire others to do the same.
-Graham Binder