This project will utilise previously collected data to produce informative and visually appealing guides giving an overview on biodiversity and beneficial insects across economically important crops in India to support sustainable crop production. Guides will be distributed across smallholder farmer networks in both Northern and Southern regions of India.
Department: Sustainable Land Management
Supervised by: Michael Garratt
The aim of this project is to help share knowledge on the role of biodiversity in the delivery of pollination and biological control services to crop production across smallholder farms In India. Farming employs > 40% of the population of India. A large proportion of this community are small holder farmers who are facing multiple threats (climate change, habitat and land loss, and soil, water and biodiversity degradation) to their livelihoods and their capacity to farm sustainably. Reducing agro-chemical inputs and adopting more biodiversity friendly management practices is an approach to help mitigate against the challenges faced. Knowledge on the potentials benefits of biodiversity as well as best practices approaches need to be shared in order to a) convince farmers that such actions can enhance productivity, increase sustainability and reduce cultivation costs and b) increase their awareness and ability to identify beneficial insects within their crops. Together with our Indian collaborators this project will utilise existing data to create a series of informative and visually appealing outreach materials intended to be distributed amongst local farmer networks in India and is key to delivering impact from this research.
Summarising data and creating farmer friendly figures/visuals of results from existing data collections Writing short descriptions and summaries to accompany data figures Collaborate with team members to produce high-quality outreach material
Essential: highly motivated and enthusiast about sharing scientific knowledge Desirable: skills in data analysis and visualisation, science communication
Data manipulation and visualisation techniques Science communication and dissemination skills Knowledge of pollinators and natural enemies
University of Reading, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development
35 hrs/week
Friday 01 July 2022 - Friday 12 August 2022
This project is open to applications until the end of the day on Sunday 29th May. Students should submit their CV and Cover Letter directly to the Project Supervisor (click on supervisor name at the top of the page for email). Successful candidates will be invited for an interview.