Senior Field Plant Pathologist / Senior Agronomist
Crop Disease Surveillance, Field Protocol & Data Quality

Location: India, with field operations across selected rice- and wheat-growing states

Engagement: Senior consulting or contract role, aligned to mobilisation, pilot and seasonal field operations

About the role
We are seeking a Senior Field Plant Pathologist / Senior Agronomist to lead disease-surveillance design and quality control for a multi-state rice and wheat crop-health data-collection programme in India.

The role combines practical plant pathology, field-protocol design, disease identification, training, cross-calibration and end-to-end dataset quality ownership. You will work closely with the Operations Manager and field teams to ensure that disease observations are scientifically defensible, consistently scored and collected at the right crop growth stages and locations.

The programme will use drone-based multispectral surveys, ground observations, photographs, GPS-linked records and ArcGIS Survey123.



Each field team is expected to comprise two pilots and one agronomist or field plant pathologist. The Senior Field Plant Pathologist will provide central technical leadership across the operation.

Key responsibilities
Survey design and disease timing
Advise which diseases, pests, deficiencies and abiotic stresses should be recorded for rice and wheat in the target states and seasons.
Define suitable incidence and severity scales for each condition.
Specify the crop growth stages at which each disease or stress becomes detectable and distinguishable.
Recommend when sampling should start and stop in each crop and season.
Define rules for distinguishing diseases from pests, nutrient deficiencies, herbicide injury, water stress, heat stress, lodging, senescence and other non-disease causes.

Disease-risk-based site selection
Advise where and when robust, findable disease signals are most likely.
Use crop stage, local weather, irrigation, varietal choic

📌 Senior Field Plant Pathologist (Mumbai)
🏢 Dronitech
📍 Mumbai