University of Nairobi Scholarships

University of Nairobi hereby announces a PhD scholarship in collaboration with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Lund University, Sweden, within the framework of an interdisciplinary research project on “Unravelling the Causes and Implications of Crop Productivity Gaps in Underperforming Regions through Integration of Geospatial, Biophysical and Socio-economic Factors” (see project description below).

The PhD Programme will be carried out jointly between the University of Nairobi and ICRAF with co-supervisors from the Swedish Universities.

The student will spend about 3 months at a Swedish university. The PhD student will be formally enrolled at University of Nairobi under the condition that is set by the Board of Postgraduate Studies and registered as a PhD Fellow at ICRAF.

Project description:

To cope with projected population and income growth the agricultural sector dramatically needs to increase production and productivity without compromising environmental sustainability. Recent research provides evidence of stagnating crop yields and regionally very heterogeneous crop yield patterns. In order to reverse this trend it is essential to identify underperforming regions and understand key causes of poor productivity.

The general assumption is that regions where the yield gaps (difference between potential and achieved yield) are large, holds promise for productivity gains and increase in food security. This project will focus on Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) where some of the largest yield gaps are observed.

The aim is to understand the causes of observed large yield gaps and to integrate biophysical and socio‐economic explanations for these gaps. Crop yield maps will be created to study variations within and between villages, landscapes, and regions, spatially and temporally.

Available socio‐economic panel data will be combined with remote sensing and detailed investigations in selected villages in Kenya and Ghana with focus on soil conditions, management practices, labour availability and other agronomic, socio‐economic and political aspects.

With this approach, links between geo‐spatial data and socio‐economic characteristics could be made by relating crop performance patterns to soil characteristics, household specifications, combining detailed investigations with large spatial coverage, and thus progressing beyond site‐specific observations and conclusions.

The PhD candidate will join an interdisciplinary team of researchers and educators in the fields of geography, agronomy, soil science, agribusiness, agricultural resources management, as well as the general area of agricultural and applied economics.

Requirements/qualifications:

We are looking for a highly skilled and enthusiastic young researcher who will be able to work in three, interconnected, interdisciplinary, research fields: