Private Extension Service Provider (PESP) at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Background
Catholic Relief Services began working in Nigeria in the 1960s and was active during the 1967 civil war in the area of emergency response. After the war, the Nigerian government asked CRS and other international development agencies to leave the country. Thirty years later, with the return of democracy after years of military rule, CRS returned Nigeria in 2000 at the invitation of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria. In partnership with the Catholic Church, other faith-based and community-based organizations, the private sector, local and international NGOs, and government institutions, CRS implements a range of complex programs with support from a variety of donors and private funds.

CRS operations in Nigeria are undertaken through local organizations in agriculture, emergency response, orphans and vulnerable children, health, HIV, governance and peace building. CRS has worked in 34 of the country’s 36 states, demonstrating the agency’s extensive grassroots networks and tremendous capacity to reach the rural poor.

CRS is implementing the Development of Cassava Seed Entrepreneur (DCSE) component of Building An Economically Sustainable Cassava Seed System, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) in Benue and Kogi State. BASICS-II is being implemented by a consortium of organisations led by IITA and covers the entire cassava seed value chain, ranging from breeder to farmer seed.

The project’s vision is to provide farmers with access to affordable, quality-assured seeds of the cassava varieties in demand by local food and processor markets through the establishment of a commercially viable seed value chain operating across breeder, foundation, and commercial seed levels.

This value chain will enable more efficient dissemination and adoption of new varieties to improve productivity, raise incomes of cassava growers and seed entrepreneurs, enhance gender equity, and contribute to inclusive agricultural transformation in Nigeria and Tanzania.

The DCSE component of the BASICS-II project which is being implemented by CRS will include the aggregation of CSEs and cover production and marketing of certified planting materials of improved cassava varieties to farmers within and outside of Kogi and Benue states. In implementing the component, CRS will identify, train and work with the Cassava Seed Entrepreneurs (CSEs) to plan and organize their seed production and marketing activities. They will be supported to be organised as formidable Seed Entrepnuers Networks (SEN5) operational in the implementation states.

The strategic objective of the DCSE component for Nigeria is to more than double the number of decentralized, commercially viable seed enterprises in Nigeria, while they increase in average size and aggregate into associations to facilitate marketing, quality control, and other services.

Description

• The project seeks to engage the services of Private Extension Service Provider (PESP) in Benue and Kogi States.

The PESP will:

• Be responsible for providing necessary briefing and mobilization of CSEs in the State of assignment
• Be responsible for training and supporting the development of at least one new SEN in a new cassava growing area in the State of assignment
• Be responsible for growing of existing networks and formation of new networks in the State of assignment
• Be trained and also be responsible for providing the required capacity strengthening of the networks in the State of assignment
• Support the marketing of the CSEs' certified stems within and outside the State of assignment and
• Support the CSEs and SENs in regular updates of basic farm and network records
• Support the SENs to ensure timely and cost-effective procurement of inputs.

Requirements

• Expected applicants for this position are agriculture (or related fields) graduates with requisite experience in provision of agricultural extension services to farmers including working experience in the preferred State
• Experience with and good knowledge of cassava production and cassava seed system will be an added advantage
• S / he must be ready to travel far and wide within the state and have previous good relationship working with farmers, farmer groups and stakeholders in the Agriculture sector.