Tentative Title 2: Impacts of Crop Genotypes and
Management on tree-crop facilitation in Wheat and Maize Farming Systems
Background
In many farming systems of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), food
security is highly dependent on the performance of smallholder farming systems.
Most of these farming systems are characterized by mixed tree-crop-livestock enterprises.
These systems are currently under high threat from the impacts of climate
change and they rarely meet food security objectives of the population. Their
resilience to climate changes needs to be improved, while at the same time
increasing the productivity of the systems. Scattered on-farm trees are
considered among some of the approaches that improve the productivity of these
systems and make them more resilient to climate change. On the
other hand, these trees also compete with crops for scarce resources such as
soil nutrient and soil moisture.
The current research hypothesizes that combining
different crop genotypes with scattered on-farm trees will maximize tree-crop
facilitation and minimize competition. Different crop varieties with
contrasting phonology, morphology and adaptability will be cropped under
scattered trees to explore Maize and Wheat traits that best perform under
scattered on-farm trees. The experiment will be carried out under an on-farm
condition and in two sites in the Central Rift Valley area of Ethiopia. One
site, Mojo, will be a Faidherbia-Wheat based farming system, while the other
site, Meki, will be an Acacia (tortilis)-Maize based farming system.
Applicants who are doing their MSc in the following fields
can apply.
- Agroecology
- Agronomy
- Plant breeding
- Crop physiology and other related fields
Interested applicants
should send the following documents (click here to apply) before February 20, 2014
- A motivation letter
- CV
- Transcripts of BSc degree
- Endorsement letter from MSc supervisor (optional)
Note: There will be limited
finances available for operational costs during field work
The field work will be carried out
from the beginning of May 2014 to End of
September 2014
For more details contact t.shiferaw@cgiar.org
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