Research Technician – Sorghum Breeding at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Duties and responsibilities

 Breeding operations support.

• Support breeding activities by helping coordinate the movement of genetic material through successive breeding stages.
• Assist with preparation, labeling, storage, and dispatch of materials for rapid-cycle advancement.
• Maintain accurate records of breeding materials.
• Support timely transfer of selected material between greenhouse, nursery, and breeding pipeline stages.

 Cross and seed logistics.

• Prepare and organize seed packets, crossing kits, envelopes, labels, and other materials required for breeding operations.
• Assist with seed sorting, packaging, reconciliation, and dispatch for crossing and advancement activities.
• Support tracking of parental lines, cross progenies, and advanced breeding materials to ensure identity and traceability.
• Help maintain orderly seed stores and breeding operation supplies.

 Support rapid early-generation cycling.

• Assist in handling materials from rapid cycling crosses, including progenies from early-generation crosses and related advancement materials.
• Ensure breeding materials are moved quickly and accurately between activities to minimize delays in the pipeline.
• Support preparation of materials for recurrent crossing and advancement under the RCGS workflow.
• Help maintain continuity of materials across breeding cycles and breeding generation transitions.

 Coordination of trial kits. 

• Work with Trialing Research Associate in preparing trial kits, labels, materials, and documentation required for multi-location sparse testing.
• Ensure that all items needed for field trials (seeds, plot QR code labels) are packed and dispatched correctly and on time.
• Coordinate with field teams, breeders, and logistics staff to ensure smooth delivery of trial kits to partners.
• Keep checklists and inventories for all kits and dispatched materials.

Data recording and documentation.

• Record breeding operation details accurately, including dates of crossing, dispatch, and sparse testing location details such as trial planting harvesting and data return, and material movement.
• Ensure all genetic materials and experiments are recorded in EBS.
• Assist with basic data entry and file organization related to breeding operations.
• Support documentation needed for quality assurance, traceability, and reporting.

Collaboration with scientists.

• Work closely with the Plant Breeder and other scientists to implement operational aspects of RCGS.
• Support the conversion of genomic selection decisions into practical breeding actions.
• Coordinate with breeders to ensure selected materials are prepared and moved efficiently through the pipeline.
• Provide operational feedback on bottlenecks, delays, losses, or material-handling issues.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Crop Science, Seed Science, Plant Breeding, Agronomy, or a related field
• Practical experience in seed handling, breeding nursery support, or agricultural research operations in a large plant breeding program.
• Experience supporting breeding programs, crossing work, or germplasm logistics.
• Familiarity with dryland crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, or finger millet.
• Experience in seed labeling, inventory management, or breeding pipeline tracking.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced research environment with multiple deadlines.
• Willingness to support occasional travel to partner sites.