Sustainable Agriculture Research Intern

About Us
WRI India, an independent charity legally registered as the India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being.

Program Overview For Food, Land And Water

WRI India’s Food, Land and Water program supports India’s shift toward more sustainable and climate-resilient food and land systems. The program focuses on practical, nature-based approaches such as restoring landscapes and promoting sustainable farming practices that can reduce climate risks, create jobs and livelihoods, and improve nutrition security. To support long-term change, the program also works on reducing food loss and food waste through fair and inclusive strategies that strengthen circular food systems and lower environmental impacts.

Taking a systems-wide approach, we work with governments, businesses, civil society organizations, and farmer producer organizations to develop land-use strategies grounded in evidence and data. Our work helps strengthen the resilience of local communities, address capacity gaps, track progress, and support a restoration economy that benefits people, nature, and the climate.

Job Highlight:

The Food, Land and Water Program at WRI India is seeking a Research Intern to support its ongoing work on the role of carbon finance in enabling the transition towards more sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural systems in India. The work will focus on understanding the evolving agricultural carbon market landscape, particularly the opportunities and challenges associated with generating carbon credits through the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, with a specific focus on rice-based systems.

As a Research Intern, you will undertake desk-based research and data analysis to assess agricultural carbon projects listed across selected carbon registries. You will examine eligible agricultural activities and carbon crediting methodologies, with particular attention to approaches for quantifying GHG emission reductions from rice cultivation. You will also analyse project-level information to understand the scale, geographic distribution, implementation approaches, carbon credit generation and reported environmental and socio-economic co-benefits of agricultural carbon projects.

Your research will contribute to a better understanding of how carbon finance can incentivise the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, support farmers during the transition and contribute to India's broader climate mitigation and sustainable food system objectives.

We are looking for a motivated and detail-oriented candidate with a postgraduate degree in environmental sciences, agriculture, climate change, agricultural economics or related disciplines. The ideal candidate will have strong research, data extraction and analytical skills, an interest in carbon markets and sustainable agriculture, and the ability to synthesise technical information into clear and concise research outputs. Familiarity with agricultural GHG emissions, carbon crediting methodologies and voluntary carbon registries will be an advantage.

What you will do:

Research

• Conduct landscape assessments of agricultural carbon projects across selected carbon registries, focusing on eligible activities and sustainable agricultural practices and extract specific information from their project documentation using a predefined data collection framework.
• Conduct a comparative assessment of rice emission-reduction methodologies across selected carbon registries.
• Analyze the extracted data to identify trends in project scale, geographic distribution, implementation approaches, GHG mitigation potential, carbon credit issuance and the adoption of different agricultural practices
• Prepare a structured project database, a comparative methodology matrix, data visualizations and a concise analytical note summarizing key findings.
• Support in policy review to identify policies, schemes and institutional support for promoting sustainable rice cultivation practices

What you will need:

Essential qualifications and skills

• Postgraduate degree in Environmental Sciences, Agriculture, Climate Change, Agricultural Economics or related disciplines.
• Strong desk research and data analysis skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications- Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• General awareness of carbon markets and carbon crediting mechanisms, along with key issues in Indian agriculture.
• Ability to present complex information in a clear and concise manner.
• Good interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in a team.

Desirable skills

• Exposure to data analysis or visualization tools such as R, Python or Power BI.
• Ability to think critically and creatively.

Stipend: INR 25000/ month

Location: New Delhi

Duration: 3 months (extendable upto 4 months)

Only Qualified applicants should apply by sending across the following: 

• Cover letter  
• Curriculum vitae of no more than 2 A4 sized pages detailing academic and relevant experience.  
• A writing sample that demonstrates analytical capabilities. This could be a paper or a dissertation chapter. 

Finalized candidate will be required to take a writing test. 

Kindly note that WRI India’s recruitment process does not involve any payment at any stage. Applicants will never be asked to share bank account or financial information as part of the application. All official communication and offer letters are issued only through authorised WRI India email IDs.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India

WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.

Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here