Scientist (Digital Agriculture)-Scientist

Key skills

Python

GEE platform

AI/ML

Advanced statistics

Additional/Preferred Skills

Independent researcher

Preferred Qualifications

PhD in Irrigation Water Managment

PhD in Remote Sensing

Scientist – Digital Agriculture

ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic professionals for the position of Scientist – Digital Agriculture to innovate and lead activities of Digital and Data Innovations in the Global Research Program on Resilient Farm and Food Systems (GRP-RF&FS). The team at Digital agriculture under the Global Research Program on Resilient Farm and Food Systems (GRP-RF&FS) is actively involved in bringing innovative digital solutions to support the agriculture system. The key scientific area of research includes using machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for providing actionable decisions for land/soil management, crop cultivation, insect/pest/disease identification, weather-based advisories, etc. The team is looking for a dedicated resource for data science to develop data driven tools.

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 millions 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 in 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:

• To develop and implement digital agricultural solutions that enhance farm productivity and sustainability.

• To conduct research on the application of emerging technologies in agriculture.

• To provide technical support and expertise in the field of digital agriculture.

• Design conceptual data framework by engaging the stakeholder and assessing the projects requirements.

• Developing data sourcing methodologies as per requirements of projects

•  Analyse existing and collected data to understand the patterns and trends.

• Use computer vision methodologies to develop the solutions for farming solutions such as plant protection, yield forecast, nutrient management, etc.

• Develop predictive models and machine-learning algorithms

• Collaborate with software development team for developing the software using machine-learning models and dashboards using data visualization techniques

• Identify appropriate solutions, databases, programming packages to design and implement the solutions for mobile and web-based data collection and visualization

 Required skills

• PhD from reputed institutions (IITs, NITs) in Irrigation Water Management, Satellite Meteorology, Remote Sensing, Agro-Meteorology and related fields.

• At least 4 years or more experience of handling research projects with good skills in statistical programming languages like R, Python, and database query languages like SQL. Familiarity other database query languages, handling bigdata will be added advantage.

• Good knowledge and hands on experience of development platforms for machine learning application such as tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch, etc.

• Proficiency in applied statistics including statistical tests, distributions, regression, etc.; data mining tools; and machine learning methodologies like decision trees, random forests, k-nearest neighbors, Naive Bayes, SVM, etc.

• Experience with data visualization tools such as tableau, powerbi, matplotlib, ggplot, d3.js., etc.

• Excellent Communication Skills it is a critical skill for documenting findings to technical and non-technical audience.

General:

 This is a contractual position for a period of 12 months.

 How to apply:

Applicants should apply on or before 30 July 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