ENSA recruits a PhD Position Announcement – Thies / Senegal

The National School of Agriculture (ENSA) is hiring for a PhD Position.Location: National School of Agriculture (ENSA), University of Thies, Thies, Senegal

Funding : USAID Feed The Future Peanut Innovation Lab

Partners: Ohio State University (OSU), University of Thies (UT) and Senegalese Agricultural National Institute (ISRA)

Date and duration: May 2019 to December 2022

Subject :

Sahelian countries face issues of food insecurity and rural poverty resulting from low agricultural productivity. Most important challenges for improving productivity are high climate variability, soil degradation, limited access to fertilizer for family farms and insufficient organic inputs but include low access and training on innovative agricultural technologies by farmers.Agronomic research directed towards the development of strategies based on agro-ecological approaches to restore soil fertility and improve staple crop yields are needed. In Senegal, research carried out by scientists from the United States, African and European universities and research institutes developed such an agro-ecological approach based on native shrubs. The innovation, called the Optimized Shrub System (OSS), involves significantly increasing the natural density of shrubs in farmers’ fields and utilizing non thermal management of the shrubs’ biomass by incorporating it into the soil.To adapt and validate the OSS innovation for farmer managed conditions for peanut production in the Sahel, three research insitutions (Ohio State University, University of Thies and Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research) have been funded by the USAID Feed The Future Peanut Innovation Lab to implement a project entitled «Optimized Shrub System (OSS): an Innovation for Landscape Regeneration and Improved Resilience for the Peanut-Basin of Senegal». The Development Hypothesis is: if OSS is adopted, soil health and farmer household nutrition and livelihoods will improve.

A thesis program is part of this project and will mainly be focusing on studying the influence of the OSS system on the agrophysiological impact on crops and soil quality. The thesis program will combine on-farm trials and lab. work. Data will comprise agronomic and ecophysiological parameters of crops, weather conditions and soil physical parameters, as well as chemical and biological parameters. The results will provide a better understanding of the functioning of the optimized shrub system.

 

Desired profile :

The candidate must hold a master or equivalent degree with majors in plant physiology, plant ecology, soil fertility, with a strong background in water relations in the continuum soil-plant-atmosphere and in basics of soil science (soil biological, physical and chemical properties). Experiences with on-farm work will be considered as an advantage. Fluency in English and good writing skills are required.