Scientist - Ruminant Nutrition & GHG Emission

ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. It is the only one of 15 CGIAR research centres dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world. Co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, it has regional or country offices and projects in East, South and Southeast Asia as well as Central, East, Southern and West Africa.

Key Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be expected to conduct marker studies to estimate feed intake and digestibility in rangeland and smallholder livestock systems. Further, s/he is expected to identify and test promising mitigation and adaptation strategies by estimating their effect on enteric methane emissions and animal productivity as well as their potential trade-offs. More specifically the candidate will:

• Study enteric methane emissions and nutrient flows of ruminant livestock systems in African using direct (animal experiments) and indirect estimations (modelling based on IPCC or other models);
• Design, conduct, and analyse animal experiments to test interventions to reduce GHG emissions and optimize nutrient fluxes in ruminant livestock systems;
• Lead and supervise campaigns to collect activity and diet data to estimate GHG emissions;
• Write and publish scientific papers,, contribute to other communication products (research briefs, policy briefs etc.), and prepare conference/workshop presentations;
• Contribute and initiate future research projects including grant/proposal writing;
• Closely cooperate and share results with an interdisciplinary team of researchers with different backgrounds (biogeochemistry, modelling, social sciences, gender studies, rangeland ecology, etc.); and co-supervise PhD, MSc students and guide research technician.

Requirements

• A PhD in ruminant or animal nutrition, animal physiology, or other relevant discipline with focus on GHG emissions;
• Minimum five years relevant experience
• Experience with some of the following techniques for measuring enteric emissions from ruminant livestock: Chamber, SF6, and GreenFeed;
• Trained in design and statistical analysis of animal experiments;
• Excellent publication record;
• Effectively articulate messages, information, and ideas to a diversity of people, leading to shared understanding. Swahili and French a plus;
• Knowledge on smallholder livestock production systems in developing countries, particularly mixed crop-livestock and/or grassland-based systems, would be an advantage;
• Experience in scaling field data by modelling or LCA approaches, would be an advantage;
• Experience of living or working in the context of developing countries, especially East Africa; would be an advantage.