Scientist

**_Scientist -Horticulture _**- **_ICRISAT Development Centre _**

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.

**Responsibilities**:

- Undertake Agri
- Horticultural studies at a field and landscape scale; design and execute Agri-Horti interventions, monitor data and analyze the impact of interventions
- Conduct research trials on grafted vegetables for screening the rootstock-scion combination for biotic and abiotic stress management and scale up the grafting technology at landscape level.
- Devising strategies for sustainable agri-horticultural/agroforestry systems across diverse ecosystems and design suitable modules for cropping system diversification and intensification
- Conduct on-farm action research trials and scaling up the proven technologies for productivity enhancement in horticultural and plantation crops
- Writing of new research/ developmental proposals on livelihood improvement through scaling out of suitable Agri
- Horticultural system interventions
- Supervise and lead the team of technical and supporting staff working in the areas of cropping system diversification
- Write and communicate research and development findings to various stakeholders for scaling up; documentation and peer reviewed publications
- Strengthen the capacity vegetable growers, line departments, NARES partners on high value commercial vegetables cultivation including grafted vegetable seedling production.
- Contribute to writing training materials, technical progress reports and annual reviews and work plans as directed by the project management.
- Ability to communicate across multiple cultural contexts and across scientific disciplines
- Excellent organizational skills and Experience working on large, complex development programs as part of multidisciplinary team
- Undertake any other duties as required by ICRISAT and needs of the Center and as reviewed from time to time by the Regional Director

**Requirements:
- Ph.D. in Horticulture with specialization in fruit crops and having at least 7-8 years of extensive R4D experience.

- Demonstrated skills in undertaking farmer participatory action research trials in agri-horticultural systems at various scale

- Extensive experience on commercial grafted vegetable technology and it’s scaling up at landscape level

- Experience of working effectively in teams and a proven ability to help improve the farmers’ income through enhanced productivity of vegetables, fruits crops, and plantation crops at landscape level.

- Experience in designing different system diversification modules for sustainable cropping system intensification for different agro-ecosystems

- Liaise effectively with variety of stakeholders such as livelihood improvement agencies, CSR, Government departments, NARS partners and research institutions

- Perform other activities as may be deemed appropriate by the head/cluster leader/RPD

- Ability to develop effective relationships and work harmoniously in outcome focused and multi-disciplinary team environment

- Independently plan and carry out research on the nominated research project and work towards completion of the aims of the project

- Perform data analysis, preparation of reports and communicate this information to different stakeholders

- Excellent analytical skills and ability to implement, monitor and evaluate on-field agri-horti-silvi systems at landscape level

- Ability and willingness to travel to out station locations for demonstrations and data collection

- High-level written, oral and interpersonal communication skills, including demonstrated experience on preparing reports and research papers within required timeframe for a range of audience.

**Desired experience**:
Experience in working with different CSR donors, government agencies on projects pertaining to livelihood improvement through agri-horticultural system diversification
- Demonstrated ability in proposal writing, project management and training to different stakeholders on grafted vegetable technology
- Aptitude to work collegially and collaboratively in diverse, multicultural environments.

**General:
This is a contractual position for a period of 12 months.

**How to apply**:
**_ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer_