Officer - Agriculture Research and Development

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with the support of the Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has established IRRI-South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It is a regional facility that supports research collaboration, training, and service provision to institutions, scientists, farmers, and other stakeholders from India and other South Asian and African nations. The state-of-the-art rice research Centre catalysis South-South collaboration, strengthens research and capacity development of rice-growing countries in the South Asia and Africa regions, and contributes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Recently the government of India has accorded approval for ISARC phase 2 through and MOU with IRRI to implement next phase activities up to 2027 to help boost farmers incomes by enhancing and supporting rice productivity, reducing the cost of production, value addition, diversification, and enhancement of farmers skills. Besides, ISARC in-house all the IRRI Programs operating in South Asia and providing them research and
capacity building support.

The incumbent will extend support in the soil, grain and plant analytical work in the laboratory. S/he will help the team in conducting on-station and on-farm trials, and organize data collection, compilation and help team in data analysis and writing reports/manuscript. The position will be based at ISARC, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

This position will be based at the IRRI South Asia Regional Centre at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and will only be filled in by permanent citizens of India.

Roles and Responsibilities
Support in the routine lab and field operation
Carry out on-station/on-farm trials and other field activities under various objectives.
Prepare (samples, solutions, standards, and/or chemicals) and perform sample handling, inspection and documentation
Prepare materials needed for laboratory analysis (e.g. reagents, buffers, media preparation, stock solution) following standard protocols
Assist in the methodology development and validation
Coordinate with partners, government agencies and other stakeholders for implementation of activities at various sites
Supervise field data collection from various sites, uploading data on appropriate database and ensure timely data collection and
maintain quality
Plant and soil samples analysis as per the objective- destructive and non-destructive analyses
Operate and perform daily preventive maintenance on assigned equipment and conduct good housekeeping on assigned work area
Ensure ready supply of reagents, stock solutions and laboratory consumables
Support requisition and inventory of laboratory supplies
Coordinate with internal/external key research partner(s) including various project teams, NARES partners, government agencies, SAUs, farmer groups and other public-private organizations for timely implementation of activities
Build and sustain engagement with project teams to ensure smooth execution of lab and field activities and work plan
Conduct and monitor lab and field activities and provide timely support to project team and partners
Manage and maintain lab equipments
Assist in data analysis and interpretation for developing reports, research literature and publication
Prepare materials and lay-out and ensure proper maintenance of the experiment operations, as required by the institute and government protocols including maintenance of storage and preparation of supplies, property and material inventory, cleanliness, orderliness and safety, preparation of commonly used fertilizers and chemicals as well as waste disposal
Collect data and ensure correct encoding on the assigned database
Maintain repository of data of on-farm/on-station and lab experiments
Qualifications
Bachelors degree in Agriculture/Horticulture/ Agricultural Engineering with a minimum of 3 years relevant work experience or Master degree in soil science/Agronomy with experience in analysis of soil and plant and field trails.