Partner in GFAR, the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) is promoting a job opportunity with the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg).
WorldVeg is a non-profit, autonomous international agricultural research center with headquarters in Taiwan and five regional offices around the globe. WorldVeg conducts research and development programs that contribute to realize the potential of vegetables for healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods. WorldVeg, the world's largest vegetable germplasm collection, with breeding and plant protection research programs in different parts of the world, is well-placed to develop improved cultivars with traits for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, enhanced shelf life, and improved nutrient content and health qualities.The Center is in the midst of modernizing its research infrastructure and evolving into an 'Open Science Center', which will enable strengthened collaboration with advanced research institutions and universities. As part of this development, the Center has an ambitious plan to research, develop and introduce circular agriculture, novel agro-ecological approaches and precision horticulture for open and protected vegetable production systems.
WorldVeg seeks a Vegetable Agronomist / Agro-ecologist to contribute to these technologies and approaches that will enhance farmer incomes, reduce losses and waste, increase food safety, improve food and nutrition security and have positive outcomes in terms of human, plant and environmental health.
The position will be based at WorldVeg's headquarters in Shanhua, Tainan, Taiwan and within the Safe and Sustainable Value Chains Program.
Tasks and responsibilities
• Provide scientific leadership and build partnerships in the use of agro-ecological and circular agriculture approaches in open-field and protected vegetable production systems through a farming systems lens -contributing to more productive, climate-resilient, safe and sustainable smallholder vegetable production systems.
• Stimulate learning across WorldVeg projects and geographic regions, and contribute to the development and scaling of 'baskets' of improved agronomic practices.
• Develop effective methods to communicate improved agronomic practices to smallholder farmers and enable their adoption.
• Supervise a team of staff, students and partners' staff at WorldVeg regional centers and at headquarters.
• Enhance the capacity of partners in developing and promoting agro-ecological and circular agriculture innovations and ICT-enabled decision-making in vegetable production.
• Actively interact and collaborate with other research programs (internally and externally) to develop, implement and lead innovative R&D activities.
• Contribute to project management, reporting and resource mobilization.
• Perform any other duties as required by the needs of the Center.
Minimum Requirements
• PhD degree in horticulture, agronomy or agro-ecology with about 3-5 years of demonstrated experience in precision horticulture, and/or agro-ecological and circular approaches to vegetable production.
• Familiarity with cropping systems in tropical and sub-tropical Asia and/or sub-Saharan Africa.
• Experience in initiating experiments, experimental design, execution of experimental plans, analyzing results and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
• Experience in proposal writing and project management is an advantage.
• Fluency in spoken and written English.
• Team player, able to work in a multicultural environment and able to interact effectively with partners.
This is an Internationally Recruited Staff (IRS) position with competitive pay and benefits. The initial appointment is for three years and may be extended depending on performance of the incumbent and availability of resources.
To apply send an email to human.resources@worldveg.org and please mention the position title in the subject line.