POSITION LOCATION: Nairobi, Kenya or possibly another CGIAR Centre or Regional Office The World Agroforestry Centre seeks to recruit a senior scientist to conduct research on sustainable land managementwith emphasis on agroforestry systems in sub-Saharan Africa. The position will contribute to the Centre's Global Research Projects GRP2 on improving on-farm productivity of trees and agroforestry systems, and GRP4 on reducing risks to land health and targeting agroforestry interventions to enhance land productivity. The objective of the research is to develop a better understanding of the impacts of tropical smallholder agroforestry systems on enhanced farm productivity, land health (the capacity of land to sustain the delivery of essential ecosystem services), and human well-being, and lead the Centre's efforts to ensure that the best of these systems reach large numbers of farmers and are applied on the land through our collaboration with national programmes. The approach will involve setting up a systematic programme to empirically test and monitor agroforestry farm systems (including nutrient cycling and soil fertility improvement), and landscape management systems integrating also their production functions. This will take advantage of a spatially explicit framework being established throughout sub-Saharan Africa under a related project that is establishing an African soil information and monitoring system. The scientist will develop research projects in collaboration with major soil and land management initiatives underway on the continent. The successful candidate will report to the leader of GRP2 and will coordinate the work with scientists in GRP4 and other projects.
Responsibilities - Design of agroforestry farm and landscape management systems to address key land health and socioeconomic problems across the major agroecologies of Africa. This will include interventions to improve soil fertility, tighten nutrient cycles, increase crop yields, provide soil erosion and run-off regulation, increase biodiversity, improve land and livestock productivity, increase and diversify farm income. - Develop and implement standardized protocols for replicated testing of whole farm and landscape level agroforestry interventions on a large scale in sub-Saharan Africa. - Design and implement measurement systems designed to monitor key indicators of land health and human well-being at farm and landscape levels. - Undertake analysis of indicators across sites and treatments, and examine the influence of various factors in order to constantly improve our effectiveness in scaling-up the adoption of improved agroforestry systems that improve soil health on smallholder farms. - Track and analyse farmer decision-making processes in conjunction with whole farm models, which integrate the biophysical processes, economics and decision making, to help interpret the above data. - Engage with international research groups engaged in farm and landscape analysis and modelling. - Publish research results in peer-reviewed journals, web-form and popular outlets. - Support African policy processes and development programmes through dissemination of research findings - Contribute to preparation of research proposals and lead fund raising efforts in this area of work.
Qualifications and Experience - PhD in production ecology (agriculture, forestry), soil science, or allied field field - Minimum of 5 years' field research experience - Solid scientific publication record in land management in the tropics - Strong conceptual knowledge on sustainable land management; ecology and economics of farm systems; experimental and survey design. - Experience in developing, testing and/or use of systems modelling approaches - Good working knowledge/research experience on tropical smallholder farming systems and landscape ecology. - Interest in pushing forward research frontiers in farm and landscape scale experimentation and scaling-up - Interest in extended field research - Excellent working knowledge of English; another language such as French or Portuguese is an advantage - Willingness to travel extensively in sub-Saharan Africa
Location
At the Centre's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya with a possibility of posting at one of the Centre's regional offices Application Procedure Qualified applications will be reviewed immediately by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Search Committee and
POSITION LOCATION: Nairobi, Kenya or possibly another CGIAR Centre or Regional Office The World Agroforestry Centre seeks to recruit a senior scientist to conduct research on sustainable land managementwith emphasis on agroforestry systems in sub-Saharan Africa. The position will contribute to the Centre's Global Research Projects GRP2 on improving on-farm productivity of trees and agroforestry systems, and GRP4 on reducing risks to land health and targeting agroforestry interventions to enhance land productivity. The objective of the research is to develop a better understanding of the impacts of tropical smallholder agroforestry systems on enhanced farm productivity, land health (the capacity of land to sustain the delivery of essential ecosystem services), and human well-being, and lead the Centre's efforts to ensure that the best of these systems reach large numbers of farmers and are applied on the land through our collaboration with national programmes. The approach will involve setting up a systematic programme to empirically test and monitor agroforestry farm systems (including nutrient cycling and soil fertility improvement), and landscape management systems integrating also their production functions. This will take advantage of a spatially explicit framework being established throughout sub-Saharan Africa under a related project that is establishing an African soil information and monitoring system. The scientist will develop research projects in collaboration with major soil and land management initiatives underway on the continent. The successful candidate will report to the leader of GRP2 and will coordinate the work with scientists in GRP4 and other projects.
Responsibilities - Design of agroforestry farm and landscape management systems to address key land health and socioeconomic problems across the major agroecologies of Africa. This will include interventions to improve soil fertility, tighten nutrient cycles, increase crop yields, provide soil erosion and run-off regulation, increase biodiversity, improve land and livestock productivity, increase and diversify farm income. - Develop and implement standardized protocols for replicated testing of whole farm and landscape level agroforestry interventions on a large scale in sub-Saharan Africa. - Design and implement measurement systems designed to monitor key indicators of land health and human well-being at farm and landscape levels. - Undertake analysis of indicators across sites and treatments, and examine the influence of various factors in order to constantly improve our effectiveness in scaling-up the adoption of improved agroforestry systems that improve soil health on smallholder farms. - Track and analyse farmer decision-making processes in conjunction with whole farm models, which integrate the biophysical processes, economics and decision making, to help interpret the above data. - Engage with international research groups engaged in farm and landscape analysis and modelling. - Publish research results in peer-reviewed journals, web-form and popular outlets. - Support African policy processes and development programmes through dissemination of research findings - Contribute to preparation of research proposals and lead fund raising efforts in this area of work.
Qualifications and Experience - PhD in production ecology (agriculture, forestry), soil science, or allied field field - Minimum of 5 years' field research experience - Solid scientific publication record in land management in the tropics - Strong conceptual knowledge on sustainable land management; ecology and economics of farm systems; experimental and survey design. - Experience in developing, testing and/or use of systems modelling approaches - Good working knowledge/research experience on tropical smallholder farming systems and landscape ecology. - Interest in pushing forward research frontiers in farm and landscape scale experimentation and scaling-up - Interest in extended field research - Excellent working knowledge of English; another language such as French or Portuguese is an advantage - Willingness to travel extensively in sub-Saharan Africa
Location
At the Centre's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya with a possibility of posting at one of the Centre's regional offices Application Procedure Qualified applications will be reviewed immediately by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Search Committee and