The graduate fellowship placement will be within the Africa RISING ‘Transforming Key Production Systems: Maize Mixed East and Southern Africa’. Under the sub-project: Value chain analysis of grain legumes in eastern and southern Africa: Improving productivity of indigenous chicken through better nutrition and management in mixed crop-livestock farming systems, which is a collaborative effort between International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
This fellowship focuses on the role of indigenous poultry in integrated farming systems in Babati district. Indigenous poultry production is an integral part of a balanced farming system and has a unique position in the rural household economy, supplying high quality protein to the family. Indigenous poultry has potential to convert locally available feed resources that consists of household waste, edible materials found in the immediate environment and waste grain supplements provided by the women into eggs and meat. Income from indigenous poultry forms an effective means of transferring wealth from the high-income urban consumers to the poor rural and peri-urban members of the community hence contributing to the focus of livestock and fish CRP of providing meat and milk for and by the poor. However, village poultry production is faced with many problems including poor feeds, high mortality rates due to lack of vaccination and disease control measures and a need for more knowledge on these topics. The overall objective of the student project is to develop integrated feeding and management strategies that would help to increase the overall productivity of rural poultry production in Babati district of Tanzania.
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works to enhance the roles livestock play in pathways out of poverty in developing countries. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global research partnership of 15 centres working with many partners for a food-secure future. ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in East, West and Southern Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia. www.ilri.org.
CGIAR is a global agricultural research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centres that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org.
Responsibilities:
- To identify value chain actors, characterize and quantify different poultry production and management systems of Babati district.
- To identify, characterise and quantify different and potential scavenging feed resources and study the constraints to the availability of these feed resources for rural poultry in the free range system of Babati district.
- To formulate and test poultry feed rations based on nutritional requirements of indigenous chickens and study the effects of supplementation with these rations on growth and egg production in the free-range systems of Babati district.
Essential Skills and Qualifications:
- Possess at least an MSc in Animal Science, Animal Production or Animal health with a strong animal husbandry background
- Have at least 3 (three) years working experience in related fields
- The project aims to enhance capacity building in Tanzania and therefore the prospective candidate should be a Tanzanian national who will be registered in a Tanzanian University
- Should be fluent in spoken and written English
Project: Transforming Key Production Systems: Maize Mixed East and Southern Africa. Under the sub-project: Value chain analysis of grain legumes in eastern and southern Africa: Improving productivity of indigenous chicken through better nutrition and management in mixed crop-livestock farming systems.
Location: Babati district – Tanzania
Duration: 3 years (1 April 2014 – 31 March 2017)
Terms of appointment and stipend:
The successful candidate will be co-supervised by a senior ILRI scientist working within the project and their affiliate university supervisor. However, they will also have access and interact with many other ILRI researchers which will also help to develop their research skills. ILRI will provide a stipend of US$1000/month to the successful candidate, travel allowance when on duty travel out of the duty locations, as well as medical insurance. ILRI will pay for the costs of research-related travel.
Applicants should send a cover letter, CV and a 3 page maximum summary of research proposal, explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Head of Capacity Development through our recruitment portal http://ilri.simplicant.com/ before 24 February 2014. The position title and reference number REF: GF/BK/02/14should be clearly marked on the subject line of the online application.
To find out more about ILRI, visit our websites at http://www.ilri.org
To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org/ilricrowd/
ILRI is an equal opportunity employer. Suitably qualified women and developing country citizens are particularly encouraged to apply
