Regenerative Agriculture Advisor (Nigeria)

Job Title: Regenerative Agriculture Advisor (Nigeria)

Project: Strengthening Farmer and SMEs Resilience through Climate Smart Production and Accessing the Structured Markets in Nigeria (StreFaS)

Reports to: Program Manager

Location: Kano Nasarawa and Niger States Nigeria

Number of positions: 1

About TechnoServe:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServes work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy lack of access to jobs and markets unpredictable political dynamics and increasingly the effects of climate change. For many women and young people the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are incomes increase and living conditions for families get better they can access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Job Summary:

The Regenerative Agriculture Advisor (RAA) will work under the supervision of the Program Manager (PM) in Kaduna and Nasarawa States to upskill maize sorghum rice and soybean farmers through extension agents on regenerative agriculture. S/he will also provide technical support to facilitate change of behavior of farmers from conventional agriculture to regenerative and climate-smart addition s/he will gather market intelligence monitor performance and provide guidance to clusters of aggregators and manage partners to achieve project objectives. The tasks outlined below are the key responsibilities of the employee however s/he will be expected to perform other tasks that are necessary within the context of the evolving needs of the project.

Program Overview:

Strengthening Farmers and SMEs Resilience through Climate Smart Grain Production and Accessing the Structured Markets (StreFaS) aims to develop an inclusive sustainable scalable and adaptable regenerative agriculture solution to make smallholder farmers (SHFs) and local SMEs (aggregators) more resilient and produce low-carbon grains in Nigeria. The three-year project will provide a guaranteed structured market for farmers to produce high quality grains yearly with a significant quantity of grains produced from environmentally sustainable practices. The project aims to impact up to 30000 SHFs directly as beneficiaries of the program. Importantly StreFaS will sustain and scale up the successful elements of the regenerative agriculture pilot of the recently concluded Developing Inclusive Grain Value Chains in Nigeria (DIGVCN) project.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Project Implementation Phase

• Oversee the Extension agents (EAs) and Community Based Advisors (CBAs) and ensure that their capacity is deepened through train-the-trainer sessions and technical handholding.
• Take ownership of the upskilling process and behavioral change campaign activities via the learning center.
• Support the project manager in developing training materials.
• Support the EAs during step-down training and monitor attendance according to the program guidelines.
• Take ownership of the learning centers and track farmer engagement activities.
• Work with the PM in identifying other partners that will provide complimentary services in programs.
• Assist the PM in identifying organizations that would like to offtake produce from the farmers.
• Facilitate all monitoring and evaluation activities surveys and reporting as well as develop success stories and lessons learnt.
• Understand respect and promote TechnoServes values vision and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Perform other duties in line with the evolving needs of the program.

Basic Qualifications:

• A Bachelors degree or equivalent in Agriculture Agronomy Human Nutrition Food Science and Technology with a minimum of 2 years experience working with and supporting smallholder rice maize soybean and sorghum farmers. Alternatively 4 years experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Must have strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven skills with Microsoft Office software (Excel Word PowerPoint). Knowledge of the use of Comcare and KoBoCollect will be an advantage.

Required Languages:Fluency in English and Hausa or Fulani (written and spoken)

Travel:Local Travels

Knowledge Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent communication skills.
• Demonstrated understanding in rice maize soybean and sorghum value chains in Nigeria. A thorough understanding of maize and another value chain (maize soybean and/or sorghum) will be preferred.
• Ability to engage and advise a broad range of stakeholders especially community leaders.
• Demonstrated experience in data collection and analyses especially in the areas of agriculture and project key performance indicators.
• Demonstrated experience with digital and in-person training delivery mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience in report writing in English.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and train in the Hausa or Fulani language besides English.

Supervisory Responsibilities Extension Agents

Closing Statements:

We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServesvision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.

With our commitment to diversity we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer andaffirmative action employerand do not discriminate on the basis of gender race color ethnicity religion sexual orientation gender identity age HIV/AIDS status protected veteran status disability and all other protected classes.

We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff partners and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact Human Resources ator call 1 .

Required Experience:

Unclear Seniority