Background

The National Agricultural Research Organisation is established by the National Agricultural Research Act 2005 as a body corporate with the mandate to provide strategic direction for publicly funded agricultural research in Uganda. The organisation is composed of the Council as its governing body, Committees of Council, a Secretariat for its day-to-day operations with semi-autonomous Public Agricultural Research Institutes (PARI’s) under its policy guidance. The Director General invites suitably qualified Ugandans to apply for the following positions at PARIs and NARO Secretariat.

Job Purpose

To execute everyday research activities, laboratory procedures, and field trials focused on understanding crop functional mechanisms and responses to environmental pressures.

Qualifications and Experience

• A first class or an Upper Second Bachelor’s degree in Plant Science.
• More than one year demonstrated working experience will be an added advantage.

Tenure of Office

The tenure of office is a 5-year contract renewable upon satisfactory performance.

• Collect, analyzing, and interpreting data regarding crop physiological traits (such as drought, heat, salt and nutrient tolerance) to accelerate breeding pipelines and optimize crop performance for national food security.
• Establish, monitoring, and maintaining field and screen-house experimental trials designed to evaluate germplasm for abiotic and biotic stress tolerances.
• Actively collect physiological parameter data using specialized equipment (e.g., measuring chlorophyll fluorescence, stomatal conductance, canopy temperature, and relative water content). Plant growth index, assimilate partitioning)
• Monitor and record reproductive growth stages, focusing on pollen viability, silk receptivity, and flowering synchronization in parent lines of hybrid crops.
• Conduct routine lab process and biochemical assays to measure stress indicators in plant tissues (e.g., total soluble sugars, and lipid peroxidation).
• Calibrate, operate, and maintain crop physiology laboratory equipment (such as porometers, infrared gas analyzers, and spectrophotometers) in accordance with safety SOPs.
• Support general seed testing units by evaluating seedling vigor indices, germination kinetics, and physiological seed quality.

• Data collection and analysis
• Field and screen-house experimental design and management
• Operation of specialized physiological equipment
• Biochemical assays
• Laboratory equipment calibration, operation, and maintenance
• Seed testing evaluation

• A first class or an Upper Second Bachelor’s degree in Plant Science.