Senior Agronomy Officer at FINDEF

Job Summary

The position holder will be primarily responsible for the management and implementation of interventions in the FINDEF’s Livelihoods and resilience building program component in the North-West intervention states. (S)He shall contribute to the design of interventions relevant to the delivery of program targets for FINDEF’s Livelihoods and resilience building program.

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager (PM), the Senior Agronomy Officer is required to support the implementation of agriculture activities of the project through livelihood interventions, business management, technical training, and capacity building to improve skills or production in new/pre-existing livelihood assets. The Senior Agronomy Officer is required to support staff development programs to improve the capacity of internal staff.

Main Responsibilities and Tasks

Project Planning and Monitoring

• Develop and update a detailed monthly intervention work program of the Livelihoods program’s intervention tasks and activities.
• Work with the PM to analyse the selected value chain core functions, supporting functions, and assess key constraints in a bid to understand how best interventions can be laid out.
• The identification of outputs and outcomes in line with planned activities and log frame indicators as agreed with the PM.
• Contributing as appropriate and as agreed to the development of intervention tools and the capacity building of key stakeholders in the market.
• In close cooperation with the MEAL team, participate in all activities related to monitoring and evaluation of results, and engage in the development of in-house M&E tools. Engaging with the PM to review and update M&E tools and results as and when required.
• In close cooperation with state security officers, assess the security situation of intervention LGAs for the safety of staff.

Project Implementation

• Defining, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and potential partner organizations, the scope of implementation and where applicable negotiation of a formal agreement.
• Providing management oversight to project implementation, including overseeing and guiding the work of Agronomy Officers (or their equivalents) and Agronomy Assistants (or their equivalents);
• Working in collaboration with other interventions as appropriate for the effectiveness of the value for money of the project.
• Facilitate farmer/association participation in multistakeholder platforms for value chain development.
• Assist farmers to understand and address the climate-related production risks throughout the selected value chains, identifying where emerging market opportunities exist, taking into account community needs, and developing production plans that are integrated throughout the value chain
• Strengthen the ability of the farmers to adapt to climate change within the selected value chains to moderate potential damages, take advantage of opportunities, or cope with consequences
• Promote climate risk management strategies to avoid unacceptable consequences. In the context of climate change, adaptation and mitigation are the two broad categories of action that might be taken to avoid unacceptable consequences
• Improve crop productivity using locally adapted technologies, heat tolerant and disease tolerant seed varieties, biodiversity, and increase the sinks of greenhouse emissions
• Organize farmers into producer associations for collective marketing, input supply, training, and advocacy for a conducive production environment and donor support.
• Establish farmer field schools and demonstration plots for farmer participatory training, learning, and research.
• Reduce crop losses through improved post-harvest handling, storage, and processing.

Stakeholder Management & Capacity Building

• Work with traditional committees to ensure the identification and selection of the most vulnerable beneficiaries for cash/assets for work and organize and supervise the identification and selection registration of beneficiaries for the on-farm Livelihood activities.
• Facilitate community mobilization towards farmers’ field school for grains and cereals, horticulture, green jobs and advocacy.
• Engaging local stakeholders in activities beneficial to the Livelihoods program
• Internal – Performance Management of Agronomy Assistants – creating SMART KPIs, assessing performance against agreed goals and providing constructive feedback for capacity building and career development.
• External – Facilitate the development of training materials for capacity building sessions of extension agents, lead farmers, smallholder farmers and other relevant stakeholders.
• Leading by example in ensuring compliance to FINDEF processes, code of conduct and professionalism.
• Train the extension workers and community volunteers to expand the agriculture advisory services and explore the use of appropriate communication systems.
• Building trust between the production and marketing associations and traders/ buyers (promote information flow between the associations and buyers and input suppliers, help associations make sense of the market information, produce visual aids to promote information flow on product quality)
• Create alternate ways for the associations to sell products and contact buyers. Develop relationships between buyers and associations, mentoring the producers on negotiation and building their confidence to engage in commercial contracts
• Promote smart subsidies to link poor producers to markets using asset transfers, cost share etc.

Reporting

• Coordination of the development of weekly reports of program activities at the state/LGA level and compilation of such reports for weekly submission to the PM, senior management and donor.
• Development of monthly reports and quarterly reports of program activities for monthly and quarterly submission to the management and donor.
• Monthly and Quarterly monitoring and reporting of intervention performance against project outputs, outcomes, and indicators.
• Ensuring that intervention records, data and files are up to date and accessible for review as needed by the team.

Technical Support

• Provide technical guidance for stakeholder mapping of agricultural and resilience stakeholders.
• Support the identification and registration of vulnerable smallholder farmers.
• Lead the development of project community mobilization strategies for targeting and registration of beneficiaries for the agricultural production activities.
• Adapt Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems to the State needs
• Lead the production of user-friendly training manuals/guides on the production and reduction of post-harvest losses for various crops produced in Northwest and Northeast Nigeria.
• Facilitate training-of-trainer modules for the state ADP extension services
• Provide business support services and facilitate business linkages for improved seed suppliers to increase ease of access and availability of improved seeds for the smallholder farmer.
• Coordinate the field team to identify and document Knowledge Management content for submission to the PM.
• Support resilience teams including the FINDEF Program in collection and or publication of good practices, success stories, project outcome documents, etc. in resilience work with Communication, learning to develop knowledge products, communication materials and other IEC materials to promote awareness raising about Resilience for schools, farmers, and communities.
• Report to the PM on the progress of activities, challenges encountered, lessons learned and good practices.
• Compile and review collected data and pictures, and collect information from
• the field to present weekly internal reports to the PM.
• Report immediately any delay, problem, or other relevant information to the PM.

Monitoring And Reporting

• Collect information and data on Livelihoods and food security at LGA level through surveys, assessments, and regular post-distribution monitoring of beneficiary households
• Collate information and data on agricultural activities through surveys, assessments, regular post-distribution monitoring, and field supervision visits of beneficiary households.
• Collaboration with other partners including relevant stakeholders.
• Participate in writing situation reports with information on food security, and security information at the community when required.
• Facilitate the collection, entry, and analysis of data and information as requested by his supervisor.
• Participate in the development of training curriculum and train beneficiaries according to the defined schedule.
• Support the M&E team in the analysis of beneficiary data collection through the various tools that the department uses.
• Keep monitoring tools and files archived at the FINDEF office, ensuring their availability to his/her Project Manager.
• Coordinate closely with the state leads to ensure that cross-LGA programs are being implemented in synergy.
• Participate in inter-agency coordination forums at LGA and State level as required.
• Set agreed-on indicators and milestones based on the resulting framework developed.
• Provide feedback to the program team based on the field monitoring visits.
• Support the project team in developing high-quality project/program reports regarding the resilience perspective.
• Support the M&E team in the analysis of beneficiary data collection through the various tools.

General Responsibilities 

• Support in the implementation of capacity-building training including field training and workshops for the target beneficiaries on vegetable production, climate smart agricultural practices, outgrower management, aggregation, mechanization, storage and market access.
• Compile and review information to ensure that the surveillance of the farming situation in implementation of the program is achieving the expected result when required.
• Supervise the implementation of field activities for targeted communities about agricultural activities and strengthen nutrition-sensitive agriculture with support from relevant State, LGA, and community stakeholders at LGA level.
• Supervise and organize all assessments for the projects or for new projects especially monthly price and market assessments.
• Analyze the humanitarian situation, taking protection problems into consideration/Do no Harm Principle. Propose an action plan to ensure that beneficiaries and local populations both understand the project goals and actively participate in their implementation.
• Collaborate with the agronomy officers to act as a liaison with the local population and authorities to identify the needs, grievances, and major events that could have potential consequences for FINDEF’s activities.
• Any other responsibilities that may be assigned by the PM / Project Coordinator.

Profile of the Candidate (Education, Training, Competences, Skills)

• BSc. / HND in any of the following disciplines: Agricultural Science, Agricultural Economics, or related field. MSc. Strongly preferred.
• At least 7 years of experience in connection with project management in the food security and / or livelihood sector, and preferably in a non-governmental organization of humanitarian and international character.
• At least 3 years’ supervisory experience is required.
• Previous experience in market systems development and/or agricultural value chain development in Northern Nigeria is preferable.
• Able to work outside of regular working hours as required, including evenings and weekends if required.
• Experience with survey methodologies, nutrition assessment and relevant data analysis
• Previous experience working with an NGO or a Development organization.

Skills & Experience

• Be professional, motivated, flexible and culturally sensitive
• Experience in In-kind food distribution activities from planning to execution, monitoring and reporting.
• Have excellent communication, report writing and analytical skills.
• Be resident and familiar with the terrain in Northwest or Northeast Nigeria.
• Experience designing and leading capacity building and training for national teams.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, and Access).
• Knowledge and experience in using database specific software.
• Experience designing and leading capacity building and training for national teams.

Preferred

• Knowledge of the local language (English, Hausa and Kanuri).
• Willing and able to be based and travel regularly within remote areas, where services are limited.
• Strong level of autonomy to provide independent follow through on processing issues and concerns
• Excellent planning, organizational and time management skills