Do you share the values of interculturality, knowledge-sharing and environmental protection? Then come and join our team!

Family farming in low-income countries in the Global South should simultaneously improve incomes, enhance food security, adapt to climate change and preserve ecosystems. In these contexts marked by limited access to land, inputs and under various socio-economic constraints, producers are often forced to focus on short-term goals, at the expense of more sustainable practices.

Agroecological intensification aims to reconcile productivity and sustainability, but its performance and the compromises it entails vary greatly depending on the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional contexts. The proposed position aims to strengthen the integrated assessment of cropping systems in rural areas, in order to identify courses of action to improve the sustainability of farms in the Global South.

Assessing these systems in real conditions is methodologically complex: the environments, technical itineraries and objectives of farmers are highly heterogeneous. Assessing the performance of a cropping system requires the mobilisation of monitoring devices and modelling tools capable of linking several scales (plot and farm) and the various dimensions of sustainability (agronomic, environmental, socio-economic). The challenge is to identify situations where agroecological systems can create synergies between productivity and economic resilience, as well as those where they generate compromises that are more difficult to resolve in terms of resource use (e.g. work, biomass, land).

Your responsibilities:

- Contribute to the development of methods to characterize variability in multi-criteria performance of agroecological cropping systems in rural environments, as well as methods for analysing the conditions that determine their effectiveness

- Rely on the unit’s research location, particularly in Senegal, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Kenya and Rwanda, where living labs have been set up to work on a variety of contexts and agroecological transition trajectories

Objective: work with farmers, advisors and local stakeholders to jointly develop relevant indicators and tools for assessing trade-offs in the performance of agroecological cropping systems, considering their temporal (impact of global changes) and spatial (spatialisation of performance on a territory) dynamics

After one or two years dedicated to integration within the AIDA unit in Montpellier, as well as to skills-building through a bibliographic review and a discovery of the datasets and models developed by AIDA and CIRAD, the successful candidate will then have the opportunity to develop their finalised research project while working abroad (Sub-Saharan Africa).

The profile sought for this position is a system agronomist researcher with proven knowledge of multi-criteria analysis (acquired through internships, a PhD programme, publications, professional experience) and expert knowledge of cropping systems, ideally with a PhD in systemic agronomy and multi-criteria assessment. An interest in tropical cropping systems and family farms in the Global South, as well as experience in interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. with economists), would be a plus.

A junior candidate must have training in agronomy and have demonstrated the ability to conduct experimental tests or agronomic monitoring, ideally in a rural environment, and analyse various types of data (biophysics, technical itinerary surveys and technical-economic operating performance).

A confirmed researcher in systemic agronomy must also demonstrate (i) the ability to publish concepts in systemic agronomy, (ii) leadership to set up and conduct research projects (coordination, project preparation).

In all cases, you will need to:

- Be highly motivated to work in developing countries, in tropical environments and in a family farming context

- Be able to build and nurture partnerships through the design and implementation of integrated projects

- Be adaptable, motivated, independent, proactive, able to manage priorities and have good organisational skills

- Have a good command of French and English

 Please include in your CV the names of referees we can contact regarding previously held positions.

Our strengths
 

Benefits: You will receive a 13th month’s salary, plus, if you are working abroad, specific allowances depending on your location and family circumstances. You will also have comprehensive social insurance cover, regardless of your location.