POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT

Scientific Officer (Agrometeorology)

IITA-TZ-2021 – R4D-001 -NRS/ICRISAT-DSM

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on behalf of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi – Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) invites applications for the position of Scientific Officer (Agrometeorology) to serve the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) project funded by the World Bank through the CCAFS program.

Background: ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. ICRISAT and its partners help empower those living in the semi-arid tropics, especially smallholder farmers, to overcome poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and a degraded environment through more efficient and profitable agriculture. ICRISAT is headquartered in Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and several country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. For more details, see www.icrisat.org. AICCRA is a 3-year World Bank-funded project with ICRISAT leading the Senegal node and participating in project activities in Zambia and Kenya. ICRISAT envisions increasing access for agriculture research and extension service providers in Africa to knowledge, technologies, and decision-making tools relevant to enhancing the resilience of agriculture and food systems in the face of climate change. The project aims to implement the sub-regional component of AICCRA through building multi-actor partnerships of existing scientific and educational networks and centers to achieve outcomes by engaging with individual partners at the country level. Specifically, this project will enhance the capacity of national regional public institutions and private firms (e.g., input providers, ICT companies, media) to develop delivery models for climate services and CSA knowledge, approaches, and tools to support effective intra-regional and south-south adoption in various value chains.

Duty Station: The position will be based Dar es Salaam , Tanzania.

Essential Criteria

• Sc. degree in Agrometeorology, mathematical or statistical sciences or a related discipline.
• Experience in climate analysis and applying crop-modelling frameworks to understanding climate risk management in agriculture.
• A deep understanding of dryland cropping systems and the application of climate services in agriculture
• Knowledge on how the application of digital agriculture and ICT may enhance productivity, logistics, or market access for smallholder farmers and value chain actors
• Experience in working with a wide range of stakeholders and interest to work in an interdisciplinary team.
• Ability and willingness to participate in fieldwork extensively

Desirable Criteria

• GIS and spatial analysis skills
• Experience with data visualization and design
• Experience in organizing capacity-building programs especially digitization related in agriculture
• Passionate about climate science, climate adaptation, and climate service provision.
• Basic knowledge of French

Responsibilities

• Provide expertise in collecting climate and agricultural systems information and applying climate analytics to understanding temporal and spatial dynamics of climate data.
• Collection of parameterization information on climate, soils, crop and management which underpin crop modelling frameworks and convert these data into useful parameter files.
• Independently apply crop models to developing decision tree approaches used in climate-informed agro-advisories or for the testing of scenarios related to cropping systems management.
• Collate and process weather forecast information and develop a deep understanding of how to apply forecast information in managing agricultural decision making.
• Lead and assist in field data collection, organizing workshops or surveys for understanding the use of ICT in communicating climate information.
• Co-ordination with partners such as the NARES, government agencies and the private sector as required for the project execution.

General information:

The duration of contract for the position is three years. This is a nationally recruited position and IITA offers a competitive remuneration package.