Designation- District Coordinator - Rural Growth Hub

Programme- Strengthening Indias Agricultural Transformation- Rural Growth Hub Pilots

Reporting To- PMU Lead

Engagement Type- Fixed-term Employment

Locations (One Position for Each Location)- Bachhwara, Begusarai (Bihar) | Pallahara, Angul (Odisha) | Maregaon, Yavatmal (Maharashtra) | Indora, Kangra (Himachal Pradesh)

Vision for the Role

Athena Infonomics is supporting the NITI Aayog in the design and implementation of the Rural Growth Hub (RGH) programme- a three-year field engagement demonstrating how integrated, convergence-led agricultural transformation can be achieved at the village cluster level. The programme operates across five states - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh- with one pilot district and one focus block per state.

The RGH is the operational centrepiece of this engagement. It brings together government schemes, frontier technologies, community institutions, and market linkages within a single village cluster as mutually reinforcing components of a coherent local development system. Rather than adding another layer to an already crowded programme landscape, the RGH works through what already exists: mapping farmers to schemes they are eligible for but not accessing, embedding technologies within existing government delivery channels, and strengthening the capacity of frontline officials to coordinate more effectively.

The programme sits within a broader national architecture. PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PM-DDKY) provide a reference framework for scheme convergence across 100 aspirational agricultural districts that RGH could learn from and inform. The upcoming Rural Prosperity and Resilience Programme (RPRP) is expected to provide a future financing pathway for scaling what the RGH pilots demonstrate.

The District Coordinator is Athenas single point of contact at the district and focus block level across all concerned departments. This is the role of the primary field intelligence anchor - someone sufficiently embedded in the district and block ecosystem to understand what is happening in practice, what are the opportunities for convergence and what needs to be enabled to make it happen, and how the RGH model can credibly strengthen farmer, village, and block-level outcomes.

The District

Coordinators ground-level judgement and documentation are the raw material from which the programme learns.

What You Will Own

- Ground-level intelligence: a current, granular understanding of the agricultural and rural livelihoods landscape in your district and focus block - going beyond administrative data to understand what is happening in practice, how frontline officials are operating, and where scheme intent diverges from farmer experience, existing adoption level of technologies and the market for such services.
- District and block action plan engagement: systematic gathering and analysis of the District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plan (DAAP) and block-level action plans wherever they exist, and contribution to the design of the Village Cluster Agriculture Action Plan (VCAAP) - the shared planning instrument anchoring the RGH cluster.
- Intervention mapping, validation, and orchestration: a comprehensive, honest assessment of all active interventions in the focus block - government schemes, technology pilots, and civil society activities - evaluating what is working for which farmer profiles and documenting clearly where it is not. The role is primarily to inform the larger orchestration efforts towards matchmaking, prioritisations, additional activities to amplify impact by different stakeholders.
- Stakeholder interface: Establish and manager primary working relationship with the District Collectors, District and Block Agriculture / Horticulture Officers, BDO, DPM-RL, Village Pradhans, Panchayat Secretaries, CRPs, KVK staff, and NRLM field functionaries - convening cluster coordination meetings and tracking scheme enrolment, delivery timelines, and institutional bottlenecks. The role also requires engagement with officials at the state level on areas where state level institutions, infrastructure and digital initiatives could be leveraged for scale up.
- Technical and process documentation: weekly field observation logs, structured farmer feedback records, convergence opportunity matrices, technology adoption data,



and monthly field intelligence reports - the mechanism through which ground-level learning becomes evidence that shapes programme adaptation and national policy.

Key Responsibilities Scheme convergence and farmer-level mapping

- Map every farmer in the RGH cluster to their current scheme enrolment status, eligibility gaps, and access barriers, building a convergence opportunity matrix per farmer profile and season. Build a strong and contextual understanding of focus schemes including underlying issues and challenges, areas for improvement etc.
- Coordinate with block and district line department officers to unlock scheme access for eligible farmers, with particular attention to women farmers, SHG members, and marginal landholders. Track progress weekly against the programme target of a minimum of five schemes per farmer in the cluster.

Frontier technology assessment and deployment support

- Assess existing frontier technology deployments in the focus block - drones, AI advisory systems, soil health tools, precision irrigation, digital crop surveys - evaluating adoption rates, farmer experience, and input efficiency outcomes.
- Support identification and validation of additional technologies to be layered on existing interventions if any, ensuring they are embedded within government delivery systems and that data collection protocols meet programme standards.

Ground intelligence and field reporting

- Maintain weekly field observation logs and prepare monthly field intelligence reports synthesising what is working, what is not, and what course corrections are needed.
- Oversee conduction of structured farmer feedback sessions at the midline and endline, contributing to the programmes baseline-midline-endline survey framework and the generation of outcome data on farm income, yield, input costs, and market access.
- Travel between the District Headquarters and Blocks as needed with a focus on project outputs and outcomes rather than activities.

Data systems and Shared Data Map maintenance

- Maintain and update the Shared Data Map - the field-level data convergence instrument to ensure clarity on what data systems, parameters exist including information on data quality, validation status etc.

Community institution strengthening

- Engage with SHG leads and KVK extension staff to assess the institutional capacity of community organisations around collective scheme enrolment, market linkage, and technology adoption and identify areas of support.

Additional Responsibilities In addition to responsibilities under the Rural Growth Hub (RGH) Project, the selected candidate will be expected to support and contribute to other ongoing projects, assignments, and initiatives undertaken by Athena Infonomics in the state, as and when required. Such responsibilities may include project planning, stakeholder coordination, data collection and analysis, reporting, field implementation support, and any other tasks aligned with the candidates role, skills, and organizational priorities. Who We Think You Are

You are likely to have between six and ten years of experience working at district /block / state level in agriculture, rural development, livelihoods, or related fields. You may have come through a social enterprise, an NGO, a government programme implementation role, a development consultancy, or a technology-for-development organisation. What matters most is whether you have spent substantive time at the district level collaborating with frontline officials, community institutions, and farmer households - and whether you understand how government actually works in the states where this programme operates.

You are genuinely curious about why things do not work. When a scheme is not reaching farmers, you want to understand the precise point at which it breaks down. You do not accept low awareness as a sufficient explanation.

You have the patience to sit with a Block Agriculture Officer or a Panchayat Secretary and understand their actual operating constraints,



not their official account of them. You write clearly - field reports that are honest about what did not work, specific about why, and explicit about what it implies. You are at ease in a programme designed to learn and adapt rather than to deliver a fixed model.

WHAT WE EXPECT YOU TO BRING

- A postgraduate qualification in agriculture, rural development, public policy, economics, social work, or a related discipline is the minimum educational requirement.
- Between six and ten years of work experience, with at least three years in a district or block-level role in agriculture, rural livelihoods, or a related programme.
- Direct prior experience of working with state government departments - particularly those relevant to agriculture, rural development, and livelihoods - in the state of the district you are applying for. This is a requirement, not a preference.
- Demonstrated experience of working across a multi-stakeholder ecosystem comprising government line departments, self-help groups, civil society organisations, and private sector service providers.

- Working familiarity with at least one government scheme MIS or data system - e.g., the NRLM portal, PM-KISAN, PM KUSUM, PMKSY, PM-DDKY, PMFBY, AgriStack, or equivalent - at an operational level.
- Strong written communication skills in English and in the native language of the district of posting.
- Exposure to frontier technologies in agriculture is an advantage, though not a prerequisite.

What Athena Offers The District Coordinator role sits at the most consequential part of Athenas work - the point at which research, policy, and technology meet the reality of a farmers field. The programme is a national engagement with NITI Aayog, supported by a leading philanthropic organisation, and designed to generate evidence that informs how India approaches agricultural transformation at scale. The field intelligence you produce will feed directly into the formulation and design of the RGH models across the focus blocks.

You will work closely with the central PMU team at NITI Aayog and Athena s Core Project Team, with regular structured feedback and cross-district learning cycles built into the programme design. Athena is investing in building its agriculture, climate, and livelihoods practice into a substantive national and international portfolio. For the right candidate, this role offers a genuine pathway into a growing organisation that values people who understand what is happening on the ground.

- Competitive compensation benchmarked to development sector norms for district-level technical roles.
- Travel support for district and block-level field visits and quarterly cross-district learning sessions.
- Access to Athenas central research, data, and technology capabilities, including the APLYD AI and digital public infrastructure unit and the TolaData impact monitoring platform.
- Structured mentorship from the central PMU team, with opportunities to growth within Athenas agriculture, climate, and livelihoods practice. [1]

Application Requirements Please note that the selected candidates would be stationed at the identified block within the district with frequent travel to the District Headquarter.

- Updated CV - not exceeding three pages.
- A covering note (maximum four hundred words) on: which block you are applying for, your most relevant prior experience, and one observation from your field experience that you believe is underappreciated in how agricultural programmes are designed or how frontier technologies could witness accelerated adoption in the country.

Athena Infonomics is an Equal Opportunities Employer Athena Infonomics is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

This is not a guarantee or right bestowed upon the candidate but simply an opportunity to examine growth based on vacancy, performance during the period of engagement and mutual agreement.

Disclaimer: This job posting & Location has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.

📌 District Coordinator - Rural Growth Hub (Shimla)
🏢 Athena Infonomics
📍 Shimla