Job Description

With over 70 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places.

Come join our 34,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Job Description:

Agriculture Specialist- EMERGE

The Role:

The Agriculture Specialist EMERGE – will play a crucial role in enhancing agricultural resilience and food security in the project locations. This position involves working closely with local communities, stakeholders, and other project team members to implement innovative agricultural practices and sustainable land management strategies. The specialist will also be responsible for capacity building among farmers and promoting climate-smart agriculture to adapt to the changing environmental conditions. The Agriculture Specialist will also offer technical assistance, ensuring the program teams work in line with nationally endorsed agricultural guidelines, develop tools, checklists, and standard operating procedures, and design and manage training and capacity-building efforts.

S/He will provide expert agronomic guidance to farmers and the government to enhance crop production, value addition and profitability. The position holder will provide training in agro-ecology, climate smart agriculture, natural resource management, conflict sensitivity, water governance and land tenure. S/He will support the setting up of farmer groups association, support in set-up productive groups in collaboration with the Project Manager, other implementing partners, community, and other stakeholders.

The Agriculture specialist will be ensuring Implementation of quality control procedures and standards for crop management to ensure high-quality produce. S/He will serve as the focal point with the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Southwest State ministry of Agriculture, ensuring that program interventions integrate government-promoted quality standards and government is facilitated to monitor program interventions.  S/He will facilitate farmers group associations and private sector input providers, aggregators and buyers to explore opportunities to partner.

Key Responsibilities:

Provide technical leadership for Agricultural programs

• Provide technical facilitation for agriculture activities, ensuring timely and quality implementation of crop production, soil and water management initiatives;
•  Support the design and implementation of agricultural programs that promote resilience to climate change and improve food security;
• Work with local farmers to identify and develop suitable agricultural practices tailored to the local context;
• Prepare input and returns (gross margins) for various crop options to advise farmers on the most profitable cropping patterns;
• Facilitate and coordinate market systems assessments, validation workshops, and stakeholder platforms/events in collaboration with the project managers;
• Support the introduction and maintenance of new technologies aimed at equipping framers’ groups with skills, early warning, market and other information;

Training and Capacity Building

• Organize capacity-building efforts for market actors, identifying market system opportunities/constraints through continuous system analysis, and ensuring access to agricultural inputs
• Prepare a farmer training programme and conduct training sessions for farmers /program participants on sustainable agricultural practices, crop diversification, and soil management.
• Support the development of farmer cooperatives and facilitate knowledge sharing among local agricultural stakeholders
• Offer solutions for optimizing crop yield, quality, and resource utilization
• Facilitate community-of-practice with lead farmers, develop key contact registry, sharing program information;

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning

• Support the M&E Advisor to Develop and implement monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the impact of agricultural interventions;
• Conduct regular field visits to assess activity implementation progress, provide technical advice, mentorship, and feedback for improvement.
• Prepare regular reports documenting progress, challenges, and lessons learned from the project;
• Collect and analyze data on agricultural productivity, soil health, and climate impacts;
• Assess the needs of farmers and recommend adaptive strategies to improve agricultural resilience;
• Prepare detailed reports and documentation to support agronomic decisions and recommendations;
• Capture stories of success/challenges to share with communications and MEAL to further create awareness of promote learning;

Coordination, collaboration and integration

• Build and maintain close relationships with key government partners and local implementers;
• Serve a focal point with the Ministry of Agriculture, keeping them informed of project activities and facilitating their involvement in key project moments;
• Identify private sector agri-input providers, professional associations and technical assistance actors to strengthen the productive capacity, enhance voice in policy-making and improve farming practices;
• Represent EMERGE program at key technical forums, sharing learning, identifying collaborations promoting coordination;
• Facilitate government engagement and involvement in tool development, assessment/planning processes, monitoring trips, etc.;
• Map other UN/NGO partners and programs in target area and identify opportunities for program recipients to benefit from other programs and document these layering initiatives (SomReP, BRCiS, WFP, IOM, USAID-funded market-systems strengthening initiatives;)
• Ensure appropriate and continued coordination and joint-planning with other USAID funded programs and promote private sector engagement in the area of agricultural value addition, inputs supply and agricultural technology and share best practices.
• Establish and maintain key relationship with research/learning institutions, including City University for Agriculture Curriculum, CSET, etc.  
• Spearhead the establishment of partnering framework agreements with key private and public sector actors to enable collaborations;

Experiences and Qualifications

• University degree in Agronomy, Agriculture, Crop Science, Agroecosystem, Crop Production, And Agricultural Economics or a related field is required.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in Agriculture, Agronomy and Agroecology.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in private sector and/or NGOs focused on market systems, value addition for agricultural produce, agribusiness, and/or financial services.
• Proficiency in agriculture, food production, sustainable livelihoods etc.
• Strong knowledge of agricultural and crop science
• Knowledge of participatory approaches and agricultural extension
• English language proficiency, Somali dialect preferred.

Working Environment:

• The position is office based in Baidoa with frequent travel to field sites in Baidoa and Hudur and some travel to Mogadishu

Skills Required

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