About the project
The Groundwater Management seeks a Research Intern starting immediately, with an option to extend. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The Research Intern will join a team of researchers from the Montana State University (MSU) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) working with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP-I) to implement an experiment and generate policy-relevant evidence to improve groundwater management practices in coastal Gujarat and across India. Results of this project will be used by partner organizations to guide the future direction of their activities, and will provide critical evidence on important debates in water management policy.
Research Area
Groundwater depletion is a serious problem across many parts of India, and in some coastal areas it brings the additional problem of seawater ingress. Because groundwater is a common-pool resource shared by all with access to an aquifer, conservation measures are disincentivised: their costs are borne only by the individual, while the benefits are shared more broadly. Strategies that allow farmers to internalize the benefits of their conservation actions on others may therefore increase investment in these technologies, reversing this disincentive. The key strategy to be tested will incentivize farmers to directly reduce groundwater utilization through a payments-for-environmental-services model.
Duration
3 months
Duties
Support the project in data collection activities, manage the survey team, perform preliminary data cleaning and quality checks.
Location
The position requires the candidate to relocate to Chotila (Gujarat) to manage survey operations.
Language Requirements
Candidates familiar with Gujarati will be preferred.