Cowpea Agronomist Vacancy at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

11:41 PM African Jobs , International Institute of Tropical Agriculture 0 Comments

Cowpea Agronomist (Ref: DDG-R4D/PDF-CA/01/10)

Post Doctoral Fellow – Cowpea Agronomist – AVEC-BF Project

Background: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) with headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria invites applications for the post of Cowpea Agronomist.

IITA is a non-profit organization based in Africa. It works with national entities to increase food production in tropical Africa. We have over 100 international scientists and support staff and 900 nationally recruited staff based in various stations across Africa. More information on IITA is available on http://www.iita.org/

Position:
IITA seeks a Cowpea Agronomist. This position is a post-doctoral position under the project “Introduction of new cowpea varieties to enhance food production in semi-arid region of Africa – Appropriate Varieties of Early maturing Cowpea for Burkina Faso (AVEC-BF)”. AVEC-BF is funded by the Japanese government, the project period is from April 2010 to March 2013. The agronomist is responsible for using all available research tools to enhance on-farm level cowpea productivity in Burkina Faso in collaboration of Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA).

Duty Station: INERA Saria Station, Burkina Faso and IITA station in Kano, Nigeria.

Educational requirements:

* PhD in agronomy, crop physiology or related fields.

Responsibilities:
The primary responsibilities for the Post Doctoral Fellow will include:

1. Identifying and screening appropriate cowpea genotypes with preferable agronomic traits and stable productivity via farmer’s participatory varietal selection in multiple locations of Central and Central North region of Burkina Faso.
2. Facilitating the training of community-based seed producers for improved management skills of certified seed production.
3. Facilitating the organization of farmers’ communities and farmers’ schools in target villages to ensure widespread and rapid distribution of appropriate cowpea packaged with improved management skills.
4. Facilitating linkages among farmers’ communities, seed producers and input /output dealers.
5. Investigating the effect of introduced cowpea with improved management practices on following cereal productivity under station and on-farm trial conditions.
6. Supervision of two staff members under the project
7. Developing technical reports in both Japanese and English.

Core Competencies

* Excellent leadership, mentoring, training, evaluation and team building skills.
* Ability to work as a member of a multi disciplinary team in a cross cultural environment.
* Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
* Proficiency with statistics and computers, including knowledge of statistical data software, spreadsheets, word-processing, and power point, as well as willingness and ability to learn further as necessary.
* Fluency in oral and written Japanese and English.
* Fluency in French would be an advantage as it will be necessary to learn and use French during the project period.

General Information: The appointment is initially for one year. IITA offers a competitive remuneration package paid in US dollars.

Applications: Interested persons are requested to apply to the Human Resources Manager with a copy of their CV, names and addresses of three referees and a covering letter (not more than 2 pages) indicating their interest/competency in handling the work, overview of similar work undertaken and their comments on the Terms of Reference. Please complete our online application form using this link: http://www.iita.org/cms/details/job_application.aspx

Closing date: The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.

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

Please note that only short listed candidates will be contacted