National Consultant

About IRRI

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers; and protecting the rice-growing environment for future generations. IRRI is an independent, nonprofit, research and educational institute, founded in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations with support from the Philippine government.

The institute, headquartered in Los Baños, Philippines, has offices in 17 rice-growing countries in Asia and Africa, and over 1,000 staff. Working with in-country partners, IRRI develops advanced rice varieties that yield more grain and better withstand pests and disease as well as flooding, drought, and other harmful effects of climate change.

Job Purpose

The IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) is a regional facility that supports research collaboration, training, and service provision to institutions, scientists, and other stakeholders from India and other South Asian and African nations. Centre aims to (1) enhance South- South collaboration and strengthen the capacity of rice-growing countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in crop production, seed quality, and to enhance farmers’ income (2) deliver research for development services for the private and public sectors through its state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for grain quality, crop production and nutritional quality and (3) enable knowledge transfer through short
courses on rice-based agri-food systems and other IRRI Education products within the region. Besides, ISARC in-house all the IRRI.

Programs operating in South Asia and providing them with research and capacity building support including CSISA, APART, DSRC, EiA, DSR Odisha, ICAR-W3, TAFSSA etc.

Incumbent will be integral part of a field team that ensures the proper protocols are followed for the evaluation, collection, and analysis of greenhouse gases (GHGs), soil samples, and crop growth and rice grain yield from farmer fields as well as household data collection.

This position is based at Andhra Pradesh and must only be filled by the permanent residents of India.

Roles and Responsibilities

• GHGs, soil and plant sample collection in farmer fields
• Monitoring of research trials; ensuring collection of high-quality GHG, soil and plant data to support the same
• Assist in organizing and publicizing local trainings for farmers and other interested stakeholders
• Provide support and troubleshooting of field equipment and GHG chamber instrumentation as and when needed
• Conduct crop cut experiments in trial plots
• Quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedure documentation for collection of GHGs, soil and plant samples
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the implementation of farmers’ field trials
• Report documenting the Chain of Custody followed for all GHG, soil and plant samples collected from farmers’ fields
• Report compiling the collected GPS coordinates of all farmers’ fields enrolled in the project
• Completed survey of farmers enrolled in the project

Qualifications

B.Sc. Agronomy, soil science, or related field

Skills Required

• Experience in field data collection
• Experience of working in a team
• Good oral and written communication and interpersonal skills
• Proficiency in computer applications, MS Office (Word, excel power point) and IT tools

Language preferred 

Telugu, Hindi