World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) Overview
The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) is a non-profit, autonomous international agricultural research center with headquarters in Taiwan and five regional offices around the globe. WorldVeg’s research and development work focuses on breeding improved vegetable lines, developing and promoting safe production practices, reducing postharvest losses, and improving the nutritional value of vegetables. The center aims to raise awareness of the importance of vegetables for improved health and global poverty alleviation. For more information, please visit our website: worldveg.org.
Job Opportunity: Research Field Assistant
WorldVeg seeks to recruit a Research Field Assistant to provide general technical support to the vegetable breeding initiatives under various projects, including setting up laboratory, on-station, and on-farm trials, seed multiplication, and on-farm demonstration fields. The incumbent will be based in the Center’s regional office for Eastern and Southern Africa in Arusha, Tanzania.
Note: This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position.
Required Qualifications and Competencies
Technical and Behavioral
- Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Horticulture, Crop Science, or Agronomy from an accredited university.
- Having an MSc in Plant Breeding or Genetics is an added advantage.
- A minimum of three years of experience in vegetable breeding, horticulture, and agronomy research, within an international non-governmental organization (NGO), highly preferred.
- Excellent computer skills in MS-Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
- Should be familiar with data analysis software such as R and GenStat.
- Excellent communication skills in spoken and written English and Kiswahili.
- Good interpersonal skills and ability to interact with partners and colleagues in a multi-cultural setting
Key Responsibilities
- Design and implement field plans for nurseries, crossing blocks, and experiments/trials.
- Schedule and conduct seed preparation, sowing, transplanting, irrigation, weeding, emasculation and crossing, harvesting, and seed extraction.
- Ensure proper labeling of genetic materials (introductions, breeding lines, and varieties) and field plots.
- Design data sheets required for data collection using the Fieldbook App.
- Ensure that all field and laboratory data (especially yield, diseases, insect pest, and abiotic stress data) from breeding trials are collected in time and transferred to a computer/database for safe storage