National Consultant Agronomist - Horticulture for North East Nigeria at Food and Agriculture Organization Of the United Nations

Location: Maiduguri, Borno with frequent travel in North East Nigeria
Expected Start Date: 14th November, 2016
Duration: 3 months with possible extension

Background

• Massive population displacements and insecurity in the Lake Chad basin are putting livelihoods and food security at high risk.
• In northeast Nigeria alone, the impact of the conflict on agriculture is estimated at USD 3.7 billIon due to livestock losses and reduced agricultural production, destruction of irrigation and farming facilities, and collapse of extension services induding veterinary health facilities.
• As of June 2016, 4,6 million people are severely food insecure in the Lake Chad basin, of which 65 percent are located in Northeast Nigeria, especially in the Borno and Yobe States.
• As a result, FAO is increasing its field presence by setting up a field office in Maiduguri, Northeast Nigeria, to ensure adequate coordination to its interventions.

Duties and Tasks
Under the overall supervision and guidance of the FAO Representative for Nigeria and with direct supervision of the Emergency Response Manager, the functional guidance of the Lead Technical Officer (RAF) and in close collaboration with national and international consultants in the project team, the incumbent will undertake the following activities:

• Analyze critical challenges and threats to sustainable crop production intensification with specific emphasis on vegetables and other short-cycle horticulture crops for food and nutrition security faced at national and regional levels:
• Assess current status of horticultural production in the affected States including good agricultural practices and resilience strategies;
• Assess the gaps and identify the needs for urgent intervention in horticultural production;
• Provide technical guidance/recommendations of approaches/strategies for horticulture/agriculture crop production interventions in order to improve livelihoods, diversify diets and strengthen resilience to external shocks;
• Contribute to the procurement process of horticulture/agriculture inputs i.e. preparation of the technical specifications of inputs i.e. vegetable seeds, fruit saplings, hand tools, composting chemicals, along with detail distribution plan to the identified beneficiaries in the targeted area;
• Propose implementation, management and monitoring plans for the horticulture/agriculture interventions;
• Develop various modules (e.g. composting, seeds and seedling propagation, pest and weed control, conservation agriculture and water management post-harvest on-farm processing and storage) for capacity strengthening of farmers in horticulture production;
• Assist Extension/NGO staff in distribution of inputs and training groups of women farmers in improved fruit and vegetable production technologies (using recognized participatory and group-based extension techniques;
• Maintain and engage in networks of collaboration amongst the stakeholders to gather information, promote awareness of technical issues and supportcapacity building programmes;
• Prepare case studies, guidelines, reports, publications and presentations in support of programme delivery;
• Perform any other related duties as required.

Expected Outputs:

• The agriculture component of the North East Nigeria Food security crisis programming, implementation, operational, information management, reporting and monitoring/evaluation capacities are enhanced;
• timely project cycle operational implementation activities ensured (project planning, procurement planning, site selection, beneficiary targeting, IP contracting, MoA/SEMA/NEMA liaison, input distribution, monitoring, reporting, field assessment);
• Information related to the North East Nigeria crisis and FAO emergency programme in the sub-region Is timely collected, organized and made available in the appropriate format.

Deliverables (indicators):

• A work and monitoring / evaluation plan of projects is available and monitoring / evaluation of projects is effective.
• The agricultural working group is activated as a sub group of the FSLWG number of meetings;, number of participants) guidelines and standard for intervention in the agriculture sector(number, type and quality of the documents) training modules and relevant trainings to the FAO partners
• Participation of stakeholders to the meetings (number of meetings, number of participants, profile of the participants)

Qualifications - Essential

• Applications are normally not considered from candidates who do not possess AIl. of the Essential Qualifications
• Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture or Horticulture with specialisation in crop improvement, production systems, integrated crop management or farming systems
• Five years of relevant experience related to agricultural or horticultural development with emphasis on vegetables and other short-cycle horticulture crops
• Adequate competence in communication, planning and reporting in English and mother language.