Scientific Officer

ICRISAT seeks applications for highly motivated and qualified professionals for the position of Scientific Officer to support ICRISAT Development Centre Under the Global Research Program Resilient Farm & Food Systems. There is a requirement to fill 5 vacancies.  The position will be based in part of Northern and Central India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandated crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on drylands and on protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit – www.icrisat.org

Responsibilities:

• Identifying potential locations for different cropping system designs including Agroforestry and undertaking landscape resource conservation initiatives such as land and water conservation measures (bunding, surplus arrangements, masonry structures, diversion drains, agroforestry, etc)
• Identifying farmers for undertaking farmers participatory productivity enhancement trials along with agroforestry and livelihood improvement interventions
• Undertake various NRM and agroforestry, productivity enhancement interventions in cluster villages with the support of a team of scientists
• Organise need-based awareness cum training programs to beneficiary households and effective coordination of field-based activities
• Monitor physical progress of targeted interventions and impact indicators (groundwater, crop production through crop cutting studies, socio-economic data) and geotagging of targeted interventions.
• Collection of primary data on water balance components, agronomic measurements, production system and socio-economic
• Formation and strengthening of community-based organizations such as FPOs, SHGs and User group
• Undertake capacity-building programs for farmers and field functionaries by organising field days, farmers’ day and exposure visits
• Candidate should be willing to stay at project locations including GIZ-ICRISAT initiatives
• Undertake day-to-day monitoring of various activities in cluster villages
• Any other activities as per project needs and advice from the supervisor

Qualifications and requirements:

• MSc/MTech/MS/Master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering/Agroforestry/Soil science/Agronomy/Agricultural Economics/Horticulture/ or related disciplines
• Overall 5-15 years of experience in the relevant field and candidate with expertise in farming system design will be preferred
• Candidate should be willing to work with a multidisciplinary team
• Fluency in oral and writing skills in English and Hindi is preferred
• Willing to travel to multi location project sites to undertake research experiments and data collection

General:

This is a contractual position for a period of 36 months.

How to apply:

Applicants should apply on or before 8 December 2024 with their latest Resume, and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree .o

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements