1. Coordinate, execute, and manage
finger millet breeding nurseries
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Execute bi
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parental crosses in pearl and finger
millet as guided by the scientist, ensuring that resulting populations are
properly QA/QC’d in coordination with the applied genetics team.
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Implement and coordinate Forward
Accelerated Selfing Technique (FAST) on F2 and F3 populations, maintaining
required population size and producing new inbred lines at the end of the FAST
workflow.
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Work closely with the agronomist and
station operations team to plan field maintenance, including land preparation,
fertilizer application, irrigation scheduling, and weed and pest management for
optimal nursery establishment.
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Oversee seasonal workers in field
operations such as planting, pollination, rogueing, bagging, and harvesting;
conduct training on best practices for cross
‑
pollination, contamination avoidance,
and teamwork; and maintain safety protocols and operational efficiency during
peak breeding activities.
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Learn and operate the Enterprise
Breeding System (EBS) for nursery creation and management, and ensure diligent
and timely entry, curation, and maintenance of all nursery layouts, field
books, and phenotypic data in EBS, and ensure nursery rows and plot are
appropriately tagged with EBS QR codes.
2. Manage crossing work, pollination, bagging to generate new populations
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Supervise controlled pollination
activities, including bagging of inflorescences, gametocide application, pollen
collection from designated male parents, and meticulous hand pollinations,
following established protocols.
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Ensure timely and efficient crossing
by maintaining or exceeding established F1 success rates.
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Monitor crop progress and promptly
address issues affecting the performance and integrity of breeding populations.
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Organize harvesting, post
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harvest drying, threshing, cleaning,
and mechanical grading to produce high
‑
quality seed lots
suitable for nurseries and trials.
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In collaboration with the scientist
and station team, propose and implement incremental improvements in crossing,
pollination, and seed
‑
processing workflows
(e.g., workflow mapping, SOP refinement, better use of digital tools) to
increase efficiency, seed quality, and worker safety.
3. Implement and manage finger millet regional multi-location trials
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Plan and coordinate the annual
regional trialing strategy in consultation with the scientist, including trial
lists, site allocation, planting windows, and seed requirements for each
collaborating location.
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Prepare, pack, and document trial seed
kits (including checks and standards), maintain trial seed inventory, and
coordinate shipment to national partners, ensuring that all trials are
established on time and according to experimental designs.
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Liaise regularly with NARS partners
and trial site staff to ensure timely land preparation, planting, agronomic
management (fertilizer, irrigation where applicable, weed, pest and disease
control), and adherence to agreed trial protocols and HSE standards.
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Coordinate accurate and timely
collection of agronomic, phenotypic, and environmental data across sites using
digital tools (e.g., tablets, field data capture apps), ensuring data quality,
completeness, and standardized trait scoring.
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Create and manage trials in the
Enterprise Breeding System (EBS), including loading entry lists, generating
field books, and ensuring diligent entry, cleaning, and long
‑
term maintenance of all multi
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location trial data and metadata in
EBS in collaboration with the data management team.
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Use trial data and partner feedback to
identify bottlenecks and propose improvements in trial design, implementation,
data collection, and partner support, and contribute to the refinement and
documentation of regional testing procedures and SOPs.
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Provide backstopping to partners
through remote support and periodic site visits (as needed), troubleshooting
implementation challenges, reinforcing protocols, and contributing to
continuous improvement of the regional testing network.
4. Resource management, reporting and communication
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Uphold CIMMYT’s Core Values of
Excellence, Integrity, and Teamwork, as well as CIMMYT’s health, safety, and
environment (HSE) standards.
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Prepare field management reports,
trial logs, seed inventory summaries, and recommendations for improving nursery
and trial implementation.
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Provide field training and on
‑
the
‑
job coaching to seasonal staff,
students, and visiting researchers, and contribute to partner capacity
‑
building activities as required.
Requirements
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Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Plant
Breeding or related field
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Minimum two years’ practical
experience in field crop research, with specific experience in pearl millet or
hybrid seed production preferred.
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In-depth knowledge of pearl millet
floral biology and pollination. Familiarity with digital data collection apps
(e.g., Fieldbook, tablets)
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Ability to drive field car (pickup
with manual or automatic gear).
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Occasional travel to partner locations.
