Postdoctoral Fellow, Agronomy (Ref: DDG-R4D/PDF/AGR/07/18)

Background:

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) invites applications for the internationally recruited position of Postdoctoral Fellow, Agronomy.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Please visit http://www.iita.org/ for more information on IITA.

The staff will be a member of the Africa RISING (Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation) project team.

Position Responsibilities

The Postdoctoral Fellow will undertake the following tasks:

• Coordinate, design and implement in the three northern regions of Ghana and in collaboration with partners agronomic research in smallholder integrated crop-livestock systems as defined during the annual Africa RISING work planning meetings.
• In collaboration with the M&E/Data management officer, compile required data, carry out data analysis and upload data sets on the data repository Dataverse as per the Africa RISING Data Management Plan.
• Prepare technical materials on sustainable intensification technologies for extension services and development partners.
• Contribute to capacity building of research associates, research supervisors and farmers within the three northern regions of Ghana.
• Organize regular team meetings and providing summarized feedback minutes to the concerned parties, workshops and monitoring tours in the three northern regions of Ghana.
• Support the identification of development actors as potential partners for dissemination of technologies in the three northern regions of Ghana.
• Publish research results in peer reviewed high impact journals and present at conferences.
• Supervise research supervisors and technicians in the three northern regions of Ghana.
• Engage and supervise interns, under-graduate and graduate students.
• Assist in preparing progress reports and technical presentations for national and international conferences.
• Contribute to resource mobilization.
• Any other task as assigned by the supervisors.

Qualification Required & Experience

The candidate should have a completed PhD in Tropical Agronomy from a recognized University.
Core Competencies

• Strong knowledge and experience with biophysical including agronomic and environmental data as well as economic evaluation of agricultural technologies.
• Experience with project activity monitoring and conducting socio-economic surveys in rural Africa
and more specifically in Northern Ghana;
• Strong analytical skills in multivariate data desired and how these can be applied broadly towards
informed guidance in improving smallholder agricultural productivity and livelihood;
• Ability to innovatively transform field-derived data into communication products will be highly
desired.
• Knowledge of MS Office complementary econometric techniques and software (e.g. STATA);
• Demonstrated ability to write and publish journal articles;
• Ability to work independently with little supervision in a multi-disciplinary, multi- institutional
and multi-cultural environment will be required.
• Good team worker and initiative towards results-driven outputs;
• Ability to integrate in and adapt to an existing complex project set-up
• Excellent spoken and written English.
• Experience and ability to communicate in one of the local languages of Northern Ghana

General information: The contract will be for an initial period of two years. IITA offers an internationally competitive remuneration package paid in US Dollars.

Duty station: Tamale

How To Apply For The Job

Applications must include covering letter which should address how the candidate’s background/experience relates to the specific duties of the position applied for, curriculum vitae, names and addresses of three professional referees (which must include either the Head of the applicant’s current or previous organization or applicant’s direct Supervisor/Superior at his/her present or former place of work). The application should be addressed to the Head of Human Resources.

Interested applicant should click on the link below:

Click Here To Apply Online

Closing Date: 21 August, 2018

IITA is an equal opportunity employer and particularly welcomes applications from women candidates.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.