Systems Agronomist (Post Doctoral Fellow) for Central Highlands Projects

The Organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.

The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About the position

We are looking for a highly motivated Vietnamese postdoctoral fellow to support project activities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam focusing on climate smart agricultural practices. The projects combine farming systems analysis with landscape approaches and strong stakeholder engagement to identify trade-offs and synergies between different objectives related to improving farmers’ livelihoods, maintaining or increasing agricultural productivity, climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as biodiversity conservation and provision of ecosystem services. This position will contribute with expertise in systems agronomy to develop locally tailored agronomic recommendations prioritized through stakeholder co-design and piloted in experimental farmer field trials. The position will also contribute to explore opportunities and limitations of specific agricultural practices such as agroforestry and biochar to act as negative emissions technologies. These activities are done in collaboration with a consortium of international research and implementing partners.

Key responsibilities

• Contribute to the design, planning and execution of work plans of research projects;
• Undertake research, carrying out complex conceptual analysis and derive insights that support the project and research advancement;
• Develop and coordinate baseline survey and analysis to characterize farming systems and derive farmer segmentation for tailored agronomic recommendations;
• Develop participatory co-design of climate smart agricultural practices;
• Establish research protocols to monitor on-farm field trials to evaluate identified practices;
• Identify opportunities and constraints of agricultural practices (agroforestry, biochar, etc.) to provide and monitor negative emissions (i.e., carbon sequestration) benefits through stakeholder engagement and inputs from earth observation and land use change modelling groups;
• Lead the writing of technical reports and scientific articles;
• Frequent national travels to Central Highlands;
• Occasional international travel to project meetings and conferences.

Required qualification and experience

• Completed PhD in Agriculture;
• Knowledge of climate smart agriculture, agroecology, farming systems analysis;
• Experience working with perennial tropical crops (e.g., coffee, black pepper, avocado, etc.) and intercropping/agroforestry systems;
• Experience with farmer household survey development and analysis to characterize farming systems and derive farmer segmentation;
• Experience with participatory co-design of climate smart agricultural practices;
• Experience working on collaborative projects as part of an international team would be beneficial;
• Experience working in the Central Highlands region is an added advantage.

Skills and competence

• Familiarity with land based negative emissions technologies;
• Familiar with geographical information analysis for landscape assessment and agroecological zoning;
• Good English and Vietnamese communication skills (both written and oral) to lead technical reports, scientific articles and conference presentations.

Terms of employment

This is a full-time position and available for Vietnamese nationals based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Contracts are issued and renewed annually, based on performance and availability of resources. This position is subjected to an initial two-month probation period and is graded at a level BG8 in a scale of 14 levels being BG14 the highest level. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT is an equal opportunity employer and strives for staff diversity.

Applications

To be considered for this position, please send an email to [email protected] (Ms. To Mai Trang, HR Unit) with cc to [email protected] (Mr. Eric Rahn, Associate Scientist) with the subject line “Application – Post Doctoral Fellow– Candidate’s full name”.  In your email, please include:

1. A cover letter illustrating your motivation to apply and suitability for the above position against the listed qualifications and work responsibilities;
2. A detailed curriculum vitae, including the names and email addresses of three professional referees who have worked either as your professional or academic supervisors and are knowledgeable about your skills and professional abilities.

This position is urgent and will be filled as soon as a suitable candidate is found. Only qualified applicants with relevant skills and experience will be contacted. We recommend applying as soon as possible and no later than 12 July 2022.

We invite you to learn more about us at: https://alliancebioversityciat.org/