IRRI Education Hiring for Officer at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India Full Time

Job Description

About IRRI
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is the world’s premier research organization 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
IRRI India is implementing a project on “Climate Smart Rice-based Systems for Prosperity and Resilience in Odisha (ClimatePRO)” supported by the Department of Water Resources and Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Govt of Odisha, and funded by the World Bank with an estimated budget of USD 2.66 million in 3 years. The program aims to reduce the vulnerability of farmers to extreme events and enhancing the resilience of livelihoods. This activity will identify short to medium duration rice varieties which will be suitable for double cropping systems in tank command and influence areas of Odisha and test them, while strengthening the seed systems for dissemination of the farmer and market preferred rice, pulse and oilseed varieties. The project will operate in selected tank command and influence areas spread over three districts in Odisha, which have been chosen due to high poverty levels, vulnerability to droughts and limited access to reliable irrigation services. While building knowledge and awareness about new crops and varieties that would support sustainable intensification and the benefits thereof and, creating stakeholder linkages through crop and varietal cafeterias and demonstrations among others, the project will also aim to develop seed producers with strong links to markets including seed dealers, public and private seed firms. This activity will contribute to understanding and designing interventions to develop seed production and marketing while supporting collectives like women’s and youth groups and, farmer producer organizations to become quality seed producers and provide them necessary technical support. Capacity building programmes will be developed which will facilitate knowledge acquisition and skill development of the farmers and farmer groups not only to produce good quality seed, but also regarding the regulatory systems, business and marketing skills. They will be linked to appropriate public or private seed agencies and government schemes to capitalize on existing infrastructure and processes. This position will be based at the IRRI India office in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and will only be filled in by permanent citizens of India.
Roles and Responsibilities

• Conduct and oversee implementation, monitoring field activities to support experiments, demonstrations, surveys and research studies related to the project in the assigned
• This position will have strong focus on interventions around seed systems managed by women collectives.
• Provide regular feedback on project activities and progress for program review and further planning
• Assisting field staff/workers in designing their work plan as per the need of the project
• Monitor pests and diseases in the fields and make timely requests for treatments
• Liaise with the district officials of DOWR/DoA, select appropriate partners in consultation with them and implement the project activities in the assigned district(s).
• Coordinate with research institutes, collaborators, enumerators and contractual
• Actively engage with external stakeholders such as district agricultural officers, kvk scientists, NGOs, government agencies, state government officers, public and private sector partners, vendors, and suppliers in order to effectively streamline and implement research
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders such as project goal owners, collaborators, extension staff, implementing partners, research technicians and contract workers to ensure adherence to the set quality standards and efficient collection of field experiments data
• Independently organize and coordinate community meetings and trainings on Quality Seed Production and Awareness-creation meetings for women and men farmers
• Successful demonstration of all forms of demonstrations undertaken in the project areas
• Ensure the quality of field data that are collected and recorded by the research
• A strong field level coordination with government offices is built and maintained
• Implementing partners and members of women collectives are well oriented on crop varietal demonstrations and other interventions
• Quality seed production training are organized as per plan and objectives
• Research/survey assignments are efficiently conducted and managed at field level
• Supervise Research Technicians/Contractual staffs to ensure adherence to the project objectives
• Contribute to the development of training materials and articles for newsletters
• Collect, record, compile, encode and proofread data in order to establish an efficient database that follows an organized storage, archiving and backup procedures.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in any field with 3 years of relevant/similar work experience or Master’s degree in any field with minimum of 1 year relevant/similar work experience.
Skills Required
Mandatory

• Has basic knowledge of MS Office and related software
• Has working knowledge of sophisticated equipment and processes for its efficient use
• Has some knowledge of the latest techniques on rice farming
• Is able to be active with associates in field conditions to work independently and with little guidance

Preferred Has some experience with providing training on farming techniques In addition to the Base Pay indicated above, IRRI also offers the following allowances:

• House-Rent Allowance: IRRI provides a house rent allowance of 40% of base pay per month.
• Transport Allowance: A monthly transport allowance of INR 4000/- for NRS L4
• Dearness Allowance: One Hundred and Thirteen percent (113%) of employee’s base pay.
• Leave Travel Allowance (LTA): One-month base pay per annum, on availing minimum 2 days of vacation leave
• Education Allowance: INR 1000/- per child per month (limited 2 children)

IRRI offers a highly extensive employee benefits package inclusive of globally-covered medical insurance, retirement plan, life and accident insurance and other allowances. Join our team and be part of our story! Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Job Reference: HQ01236