Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

International Water Research Institute (IWRI)

Position Announcement

Position Title: PhD in Empowering Phosphorous and Smart irrigation Role in building Climate-Smarter Agriculture in Africa

Description:

Climate change already affects agricultural productivity, especially of poor smallholder farmers. On the African continent scale, only 6% of agricultural land is currently irrigated. In the years to come, the demand for water in African agriculture will continue to grow to support the increase in productivity. Input’s supply is a key factor for increased agricultural productivity; fertilizers, as one of the main agricultural inputs, plays important role in tackling climate change in addition to improving the farming value chain.

As a promising solution, African farmers are supposed to adopt Climate-Smart agriculture (CSA) based on smart irrigation management and balanced fertilization to be prepared for climatic uncertainties (water deficit, high temperature stress…) and to contribute in the food security goal.

This PhD project will strive to unlock various technical and economic opportunities ahead of CSA framework in Africa by investigating smart irrigation and sustainable Phosphorous fertilization-based strategies under African context.

By taking advantage from the high-resolution climate modeling, crop modelling, GIS technologies and the agronomic sciences, this research project proposes to quantify and demonstrate the added value of climate-Smart irrigation and P-fertilization in African CSA models; in such farming framework, mitigation and adaptation efforts to climate change are joined with increased productivity and farmer income goals.

Key duties:

• Performing different modeling tasks: Climate change, plant growth, irrigation water dynamics, Carbon dioxide, nutrients dynamics…etc
• Implementing and supervising field experiments
• Conducting field investigations and surveys
• Collecting and analysing multi-source biophysical and socio-economic data

Criteria of the candidate:   

• Both desktop and ground enthusiast
• Good analytical vision
• Willingness to travel in Morocco and Africa

Skills:   

• M.sc (or equivalent) in Agricultural sciences
• Good understanding of Climate change’ related issues in Africa
• Good programming skills
• Fluency in English language