Over the last year, you are bound to have heard of millets. Have you found yourself wanting to know more and interrogate the information out there?
In the current moment of such attention, we at The Locavore are critically engaging with millets within the food system to provide comprehensive, balanced, and nuanced perspectives through our Millet Revival Project with Rainmatter Foundation. We do this through numerous ways—from telling stories of culinary and farming practices surrounding the grains, documenting and analyzing existing research on the grains, working with food producers and farmer groups, facilitating meaningful discussions, to creating innovative and well-tested recipes that champion multiple millet varieties.
We are therefore offering opportunities for creative individuals looking to do impact-driven work with millets, their ecology, and the food system at large. As an organization, we are dedicated to creating a work culture that prioritizes our team’s wellbeing, and supports our employees and contributors to learn, rest, and grow. We invite you to join us in the #MilletRevivalProject!
Climate & Policy Lab
Our team of researchers and volunteers will facilitate and promote a nuanced understanding of how millets—known to be climate-smart—can help tackle the climate crisis. The Millet Climate & Policy Lab (CPL) will be responsible for driving in-depth research, laying the fundamentals for the Millet Revival Project. Some of the work we will engage with:
• Organizations operating at the state level, such as NESFAS and OMM, to create blueprints of ways of incorporating millets into the Indian food system, improving agroecology structures, and documenting existing challenges and corresponding mitigation strategies.
• Speak to agricultural experts, climate scientists, policy professionals etc in order to collate expert opinion across various sectors and present this information and expertise in a concise and easily accessible manner through a large scale in depth survey.
• Use data and visualization tools for science communication purposes: explore questions about millet cultivation, yield, geographical concentrations etc.
• Support the Editorial Lab through research and data for the stories and features explored.
The outcomes of the lab involve an evolving research database; articles on the intersections of millets, culture, society and politics; events such as Beyond The Plate to facilitate in depth discussions around the various facets of the millet landscape. We are also working on understanding the policy landscape around millets in India and identify existing bottlenecks in order to suggest solutions.
CPL Research Volunteers
Role: Climate & Policy Lab Research Volunteer
Reports to: Climate & Policy Lab Lead
Location: Candidate should be based in India
Employment Type: Part Time, till December, 2024
Duration of Engagement: Quarterly engagement contingent on performance and participation for a span of twelve months.
Honorarium: 2,000 per month
Open Positions: 2
About the Role
Working with the CPL Lead, you will conduct in-depth research on the various aspects of millets’ potential as climate-smart solutions. Your skills in data collection and critical thinking will allow us to understand the complex networks of millet processing, growing practices, demand, supply, and pricing, as well as adjacent policy systems.
Your interactions with stakeholders from across millet production spaces will inform the lab’s research endeavors, specifically the millet opinion surveys and interviews we are undertaking, which aims to collate diverse expert opinions of policy experts, agricultural scientists, Farmer Producer Organisations, chefs as well as farmers and consumers.
You will also be responsible for working on a data analysis and visualization project that looks through agricultural data to uncover interesting patterns in India’s agricultural history and ensure effective communication of these complex phenomena. You will facilitate in-depth discussions through events like ‘Beyond The Plate’ that allow us to foster a live discursive space around millets and their climate impacts, current policies, and nutritional values, among other themes.
Your passion for sustainability, climate-smart solutions, and the role of millets in addressing climate challenges, coupled with your experience in research and policy analysis will be instrumental in helping us achieve the goals.
To apply, fill the form here.
Deadline: 23 August
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