Position title
Scientific Officer
Hiring organization
Employment Type
Full-time
Industry
Agriculture
Job Location
Malawi
Valid through
July 4, 2023
Description
ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic Malawian Nationals for CIMMYT for the position of Scientific Officer.This position will support on-going research activities in Malawi, Zambia and collaborating projects in the Southern Africa region as needed. The incumbent will work under the supervision of scientists in implementing the Accelerated Inovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I) project and play an important role in participating in demonstration establishment, backstopping, field surveys, data collection and data analysis.
AID-I is a Feed the Future (FtF) Activity jointly implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of State (DOS). It targets farming communities in vulnerable regions and expanding partnerships where USAID and last-mile partners already work. Managed by USAID/Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS), the AID-I Activity aims to address the global food and fertilizer price crisis by bringing together existing networks of last-mile partners, including governments, research organizations, private sector businesses, and development NGOs to coordinate rapid action and enhance market-led delivery channels to reach millions of smallholder farmers quickly with demand-driven innovations and information.
Responsibilities
- Lead the implementation of the AID-I in Malawi and Zambia including planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating demo establishment, farm surveys, data collection, analysis of results.
- Training of partners on various technical aspects of legume and cereal agronomy and seed production as appropriate.
- Design trials and demonstrations and developing research protocols, procedures, and data collection tools for use during implementation of research activities for cereals and legumes.
- Select demonstration sites for impact (considering farmer and field appropriateness) and potential for popularization of technologies.
- Lead and supervise a team of technicians assigned to manage agronomic experiments and demonstrations under cereal and legumes to ensure highest data quality standards are met.
- Backstop seed production activities with good agronomic technologies/practices for them to meet targets.
- Collating, cleaning, and analysing agronomic data collected using appropriate data analysis packages to support reporting of projects activities.
- Coordinate project activities with partner agencies, government departments, and farming communities and report on status of the initiative as needed.
- Manage project budget, including tracking project expenses and adherence to the project budget.
Qualifications
- A master‘s degree agronomy, soil science, agroecology, farming systems or a closely related field
- At least 10 years of practical agriculture experience in research for development in smallholder production systems in Malawi or Zambia
- Experience with using participatory research methodologies and adapting agricultural practices to local biophysical and socioeconomic conditions.
- Commitment to advances in farm productivity, food security and poverty reduction in the developing world.
- Computer literacy, with proficiency in the common software packages.
- Skilled in data analysis and scientific writing
- Willingness to travel to rural villages and to spend considerable time away from home.
- Experience working in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams in international research for development setting.
- Demonstrated ability to work within deadlines and deliver quality products.
- Advanced written and oral communication skills in English.
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
- The selected candidate must exhibit the following competencies: Critical Thinking, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Communication, Teamwork and Client Orientation.
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