Research Officer -GIS at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Key Responsibilities  

Purpose

• Monitor the DSR effectiveness in each environment by collecting hyperspectral drone/satellite data and other field/crop parameters over the sample fields.
• Test the possibility of using hyperspectral data to monitor and characterize the agricultural management practices, DSR yield and DSR adaptation traits in hybrids and varieties in different environments
• Develop the models to monitor the environment, plant health and assessment of performance of DSR varieties at local field scale
• Characterize the variation in best practices, fertilizer practices & water use (avoidance or duration of flooding) by reducing flooding
• Develop multiple RS based indices to assess water, nutrient usage of the plants and generate the empirical equation to determine yield
• Modeling alternative ways to determine DSR growth and fertilizer and nutrient use will be carried out through usage of Hyper spectral data, environmental variables such as high-resolution DEM, climatic variables and subsequent satellite images for scaling
• Use lock step scaling of local to satellite Hyper spectral data
• Analyze the datasets, and contribute to the writing of reports, research papers and other communication material
• Manage the primary and secondary data collection process in field soil, water, weather, crop establishment methods and practices etc.

Engagement

• Acquire, process, transform, and extract information from acquired hyperspectral imagery
• Inform the immediate supervisor on the development of hyperspectral drone acquisition, image processing, and GIS based activities
• Work closely with project team members to ensure full understanding of the scope, priorities, and deadlines of the activities
• Collaborate with scientists at advance research institutes and in the private sector to develop new research products
• Assist project leaders and/or collaborating partners to define the scope of research activities
• Contribute to the organization of advisory committee, and other meetings and monitoring/ execution of actions to be taken related to their units /sub-units
• Lead the efforts on biannual/annual/other reports preparation of institute and associated projects of theme/ sub-theme
• Actively contribute to the drafting communication materials, news, bulletins, etc. 
• Participation / contribution to visits, meetings, workshops, farmers fairs and etc.

Delivery

• Ensure timely delivery of processed and orthorectified drone based geospatial products to the project team
• Ensure the timely completion of high-quality deliverables
• Collect, store and curate data generated from the analytics
• Communicate research results and new ideas in a broad array of outlets, including peer-reviewed journals, mass media, policy fora as well as national and international scientific conferences

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Geospatial Science, Agriculture, Geography, Environmental Science, or other related discipline with at least 4 years’ relevant work experience of application of Remote Sensing and GIS in agriculture  
• Has extensive proven technical proficiency in remote sensing and GIS with proven skills in
• Experience working with hyperspectral and multispectral image analysis
• Technical proficiency in operating drone mounted with hyperspectral / multispectral sensors, and
• Crop types mapping, vegetation phenology, cropping system mapping, and database management, analytics using physical (soil, water and climate) and farmer databases.
• Proven knowledge of field data collection and agro-management practices
• Has good working knowledge of remote sensing and GIS software, Database and software such as ERDAS, ENVI and e-Cognition and drone image processing tools like Pix4D, Agisoft and other opensource etc.
• Substantial experience in scripting such as R and Google Earth Engine
• Certified Drone pilot license
• Experience of any of statistical analysis and logical development of
• Experience working with large team and different disciplines.
• Experience with working on multiple remote sensing datasets like satellite & drone images 

Apply before 5 July 2023