Seed2B Project Manager at Syngenta AG

Ref No: 18025866
Location: NGA-Victoria Island, Lagos
Job: Business Sustainability - Specialist Area

Description

• The Syngenta Foundation's mission is to create value for resource-poor small holder farmers in developing countries through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains.
• The Foundation works with partners in developing countries and emerging markets. Our aim is to help small holder farmers become more professional growers. We do this by extending science-based know-how, facilitating access to quality inputs, and linking smallholders to markets in profitable ways. This adds value for rural communities, and sustainably improves food security.
• The Syngenta Foundation operates across product streams following a pipeline approach (Proof of Concept, Scale-Up, Handover).

Our current streams are:

• Agriservices
• Risk Management and Financial Inclusion for smallholder farmers, implementing and scaling up affordable agricultural insurance products and risk transfer mechanism to access credit.
• Access to Seeds (Seeds2B) which includes investments in plant breeding and technology transfer of new varieties to smallholders.

In pursuit of SFSA’s mission to create value for resource-poor smallholders in developing countries through innovations in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains, SFSA is seeking to recruit a Seed2B Project Manager to coordinate the AVISA Seeds2B project in Nigeria.  The position will provide expertise on the seed system’s current landscape for Cowpea and Sorghum in Nigeria.

Accountabilities

• Act as the Nigeria expert on the seed system’s current landscape for Cowpea and Sorghum. In particular, be the ‘go to’ person for questions regarding the process, seed value chain actors, seed sector challenges, the crops and varieties used, the market segment, value and demand, the optimum zones for growing each crop.
• Learn, adopt and champion the Seeds2b commercialization process
• Create and maintain country reports summarizing the seed system situation of Nigeria for the two crops in scope and identify the main areas for maximum impact.
• Identify and build strong relationships with Nigeria seed companies that are willing to invest in their growth and identify those that have the best potential to take on new varieties.
• Visit and get valuable feedback from the seed companies in Nigeria regarding their challenges, their growth plan and the crops, varieties they produce or/and distribute, area reached.
• Support selected local seed companies to grow and adopt new variety by understanding their needs and find solution to address them
• Support the  Technical Assistance (TA) program of SFSA on the ground, collaborating closely with the TA lead
• Work with the public and private breeders to identify varieties that are most likely to fit the market need
• Facilitate the creation of Target Product Profile and the implementation of SFSA’s Product Advancement Approach by the NARS and CG
• Ensure that local seed companies are exposed to the new most promising varieties through their participation in field days on demo trials
• Use data to demonstrate the value of new varieties and to create convincing business cases for seed companies and growers
• Support the early generation seed (EGS) work plan by collaborating with the EGS consultant
• Manage the project budget by tracking spending and keep the Finance Manager Africa and AVISA Project Lead informed through regular reports, highlighting any potential issues.
• Ensure field demonstration trials are carried out effectively and relevant data collected (either directly or through collaboration with national organizations).
• Collaborate with the AVISA project lead to create technical reports.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Agronomy, Breeding, Agribusiness or related field.
• Three years’ experience with good scientific knowledge in seed production or seed research, breeding and agronomy
• Knowledge and experience working with private seed sector and national seed regulations
• Strong capability to analyze data and extract most relevant knowledge
• Effective scoping, priority setting and resource allocation to maximize added value of the role.
• Effective influencing, collaboration and communication across different work levels, functions and locations.
• Experience in working in a diverse team spread across geographies (‘virtual teams’)
• Excellent communication skills with ability to communicate with diverse audiences whose native language may not be English.
• Ability to balance plan, be fully accountable for own work in the territory and to communicate ideas and output efficiently.
• Ability to communicate value to customers
•  Willingness to travel and may be required to execute delivery of project / initiatives across a range of different locations.

Terms of employment

• The position is nationally recruited and based in Kano, Nigeria. The contract will be for a two-year period, subject to probation period of three (3) months, renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. 
• We believe that the diversity of our staff contributes to excellence. SFSA is an equal opportunity employer, and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality.

Complexity:

• Operates in unproven and failed markets with complex and emerging regulatory environments to enact change
• Adapts Syngenta Foundation working practices to respond to emerging regional challenges
• Personal engagement with both public and private sector senior representatives
• Personally accountable for delivery of programs and strategic partnerships