Post-Doc Fellow: Agriculture & Climate Change (Ethiopia)
Climate change is affecting food and nutrition security of Ethiopian farmers, particularly under marginal conditions (low and irregular rainfall, rising temperatures acid soils). Available genetic diversity of barley and durum wheat is an important resource to provide farmers with Climate-Smart, nutrient-dense landraces or improved materials, to sustainably increase yields under unfavourable conditions of Tigray, Oromiya and Amara regions. In order to provide farmers with this superior material it is important to identify superior varieties through molecular characterization, nutritional profile, field trials for agro-morphological characterization and participatory variety selection looking in particular at heat stress, rainfall, soil acidity and pests and diseases related stresses. The material identified will enter into a participatory and decentralized breeding program aiming at engaging the farmers in further improvement of the material. However, we will be able to start the decentralized and participatory breeding in year 1 of the program, by using material already developed and characterized during previous projects. Some of the material that will go through stage 2 will be tested for official variety release in order to make them available to all seed actors as well. In order to ensure that seeds are timely available to farmers in right quantities and qualities we will enhance the seed multiplication and distribution by piloting different institutional approaches (CSBs, local entrepreneurial seed companies). Monitoring these pilot cases will provide insights into the capacity of each type of institution to handle diverse materials.
Bioversity is seeking a highly motivated Post Doctoral Fellow to provide coordination support to national partners to develop and implement a research agenda aiming at managing durum wheat and genetic diversity as a key asset to adapt to climate change. The position will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with frequent travels within the Country, and will report directly to the Senior Scientist, Country Representative.
