Associate Scientist – System Agronomist

ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic and highly motivated professionals as an Associate Scientist in System Agronom who can work on a wide range of topics, with particular emphasis on cropping systems, agroecology, nutrient management, and resilience. The candidate should be strong in partnership engagement at different levels – national, regional, and local scales, and will be responsible for overseeing projects from conception and design through implementation, monitoring, and impact measuring to deploy scalable solutions. The ideal candidate should be able to carry out and supervise the piloting and scaling of various agronomy and soil-related solutions.

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:

• Providing leadership and technical guidance on the design, planning, and execution of nutrient management, system’s agronomy, soil and water management, agroecology, and crop livestock resilient practice-related projects.

• Leading partnerships and co-designing of agronomic, soil health, and landscape solutions with national partners and stakeholders.

• Providing leadership, monitoring progress, and ensuring stakeholder expectations are managed for project deliverables.

• Supporting the development of databases, decision support tools, and dashboards and other geospatial tools to address key research questions and hypotheses.

• Coordinating data analysis and impact measuring approaches targeted to addressing specific challenges.

• Developing, coordinating, and contributing to the delivery of quality research outputs and knowledge assets globally in coordination with the ICRISAT national and global team.

• Leading and contributing to the writing of peer-reviewed papers, technical notes, and project reports.

• Leading and contributing to project proposal writing and fundraising.

• Communication with larger partnerships and ICRISAT teams

Requirements:

• PhD in Agronomy, Agroecology, Soil Science/Natural resource management or related areas, with more than 3 year’s experience.

• Proven capacity in research design, implementation, data collection and analysis, data visualization, and scientific writing, particularly in the use of different modeling and machine learning approaches.

• Experience with farm and landscape processes, their interactions, and adaptation of practices to the local context.

• Knowledge of the context of smallholder farming in humid and drylands and extensive knowledge of crop livestock production systems.

• Proven track record as a research leader and manager in the field of system agronomy and field experimentation · Records of peer-reviewed scientific publications.

• Documented ability to use advanced quantitative analytical tools, including advanced statistics, and preferably R/Python scripts, spatial tools, Google engine for qualitative data sets.

• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and spoken, including scientific communication and report writing.

• Strong ability to lead, prioritize, and organize workload; take initiative and work under pressure.

• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary, and multicultural team.

General:

This is a contractual position for a period of 24 months.

How to apply:

Applicants should apply on or before 10 November 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