Safaa Kumari

Safaa Kumari (; born 1963) is a Syrian born plant virologist. She is known for developing a disease resistant variety of faba bean that is resistant to the faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV).

Life She was born in 1963 in Aleppo. She was brought up in Aleppo and she has several siblings. Between 1982 and 1985 she was at Aleppo University where she studied in the faculty of Agriculture.

She began work looking at a virus that has been spreading from Ethiopia and it affects the important food plants of lentils, faba beans and chickpeas. This is devastating for low income families who rely on these beans to be their "poor man's meat". Oddly the cause is linked to climate change. The changing temperatures encourages the aphid population to boom and these aphids spread the virus much more widely.

In 2020, she was recognised in the BBC's 100 Women. Two women from Syria made the list - the other was the film maker Waad Al Kateab. By this time she was working in Lebanon. Where she worked at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in the Beqa’a Valley.