UM6P CEDOC- College of Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Science: Soil attributes estimation - Benguerir

Yield gaps analysis is a powerful method to evaluate the spread between the actual yield and the attainable yield of a given crop in an area, region or country.  It helps decision making on research, policies, development and investment that is needed to improve yield. However, the agriculture data needed at national, regional or field level in developing countries are often unreliable or not available, particularly for smallholder landscapes, which makes it difficult to measure yield gaps, identify the causes, and suggest and evaluate measures to improve productivity.

UM6P is initiating a research project, named “Imaging4Agriculture” in collaboration with CESBIO (Toulouse-France) which aims to develop a methodological approach based on more transparent, scientifically robust, and reproducible methods and tools for yield gaps analysis at different spatial scales, combining ground data, crop growth models, and a bottom-up approach to upscale results from location to region and country.

The project team will be made up of 11 professors of UM6P and of 12 doctoral and Post doctoral students. The project will focus on Morocco and Senegal. The successful candidate will integrate the project team and will be part of the A-Lab (UM6P – Technopolis Rabat). He/She will focus on soil attributes estimation using teledetection techniques. In particular, he will study how hyperspectral satellite imaging can complement existing databases to improve the precision of soil attributes fertility maps. Hence, the use of hyperspectral images for soil attributes estimation, will be done in relationship with these reference points to improve spatial interpolations and also estimate soil evolution in time (using time series together with soils samples collected at various dates). 

Key duties:

 The PhD candidate will:

1. Take part in scientific research within the research project that will culminate in a doctoral thesis.
2. Engage in relevant research activities (e.g., workshops, conferences) in and out of the UM6P ecosystem (ALAB, CRSA, etc…).
3. Disseminate results of the doctoral thesis as papers through high impact peer-reviewed journals, conferences presentations and social media engagements.

The research activities of the student will include:

1. State of the art analysis
2. Set up data collection plans and participate to data collection in order to insure quantity and quality of datasets both in Morocco and Senegal.
3.  Identify soils attributes that are best suited for hyperspectral identification.
4.  Develop and/or improve existing algorithms to interpolate soils attributes values from a network of references points.

About A-Lab:

The Analytics Lab is a laboratory of the Polytechnic University Mohammed6, based in Sale Technopolis site) dedicated to the development of innovative solutions and start-ups around data sciences. The targeted application areas are industry 4.0, agriculture and health.

Criteria of the candidate:   

The candidate should have:

1. A master’s degree in any of the following areas: Image processing, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Remote Sensing.
2. Programming skills and use various analysis tools such as R, Python, MATLAB, SPSS, and CDO is vital.
3. Evidence of publishing peer reviewed papers will be an added advantage.

Skills:   

1. Self-motivated with an interest in Artificial intelligence, datascience, remote sensing soil and agriculture.
2. Ability to work autonomously as well as work in a diverse team is an added advantage.
3. Strong communication and organizational skills are highly desired.
4. Very good level in english as a spoken and written language.