Key Roles and Responsibilities

Training and promotion of technologies

• Promote and make use of improved production enhancing Israeli agricultural technologies and practices for operational area farmers.
• Promote improved production practices through delivery of effective extension training and follow-up support.
• Provide capacity building training, technical and follow up support for partners, including smallholder farmers, cooperatives, development agents and other stakeholders.
• Knowledge transfer and capacity building for farmers, trainers, and stakeholders
• Develop training materials, presentations and protocols for the implementation of activities.

Implementation of program activities

• Take the lead role and support the establishment and management of demonstration sites at Farmers Training Centers and Model Farmers Fields.
• Facilitate and organize farmers -to-farmers experience sharing visits within the Kebele, Woreda, and between Woredas.
• Support and manage of demonstration sites within Farmers Training Centers and Model Farmers Fields, fulfilling all technical needs for each purpose of the demonstration.
• Organize field days, and other events related to the promotion of the project.
• Visit farmers to ensure proper agronomic and technological implementation.
• Execute the operational plan according to timeline, overcoming challenges and strong management of the field team.

 Agronomic

• Develop agronomic protocols as needed and ensure quality implementation in the field.
• Work with existing TOV clients to help them sustainably engage on dry season irrigable high value vegetable crops production,
• Closely follow and ensure that all TOV target clients have received proper agronomic services on time, document their feedback, lesson learnt, and experiences gained for future performance improvement,
• Support and ensure on time documentation of every practice, technologies that will be implemented on target farmers’ fields, and demonstration sites.
• Identify challenges, bottlenecks, and opportunities among farmers production cycle, identifying innovative solutions and methodologies.

 Technical

• Ensure the delivery of all the inputs for the project target beneficiaries and check whether the inputs are utilized for the intended purpose.
• Follow up, and technical backstopping support for TOV model farmers on a regular basis.
• Record all equipment behalf of JDC, and ensure proper tracking of other related equipment managed by the partners (inputs, drip system parts, etc.)

 Administrative

• Make field officers to prepare daily action plan, collect their every day’s achievements every Friday and send to the head office every Friday.
• Supervise and follow every field staff’s activity accomplishment and report immediately weak/poor performance, for the head office and discuss on it with the TOV management.
• Give regular on-site support for field officers, give, and take feedback regularly.
• Work closely with JDC staff and all stakeholders (Government line offices, Unions, Primary Cooperatives, NGOs, Private sectors, Farmers, etc.)
• Ensure that planned activities are properly accomplished (foe unaccomplished activities reasonable corrective measures and justifications are set)
• Collaborate and demonstrate high level of teamwork with each staff within the project.
• Respect policies and procedures in regard to punctuality on job, safety issues, financial issues and settlements, norms, vision, mission and objectives of JDC.

 Partners

• Engage and work closely with government, NGOs and private partners and keep relationships smooth.
• Gather target clients feedback on drip irrigation technologies, agronomic practices, agricultural extension services and agronomic support and discuss on it with the project team for correction and improvement.
• Work closely with farmers’ cooperatives and Unions to link farmers and create access to credit for drip irrigation technology and other inputs.
• Develop partnerships on the field level, engaging stakeholders on field days, and promoting the project from the strategic perspective.

 Financials and reporting

• Work closely with key stakeholders, support and ensure that input-loan repayment by the target farmers made timely,
• Develop business plans for farmers and stakeholders.
• Communicate and report daily to the team members through email and other platforms.
• Compile the reports of Field Officers regarding the status of each target farmers and crops at each stage of crop growth both in soft and hard copies on a regular basis.
• Undertake activities urgently assigned by immediate supervisor, Country Director, and TOV team from Israel.
• Comply with JDC policies, rules, and regulations.

Qualifications/Experiences

• MSc or BSc in Agronomy or related agriculture fields with minimum 5 years of experience and 8 years of experience, respectively.
• Knowledge and understanding of agriculture sector in Ethiopia and experience in working in the horticulture sector under hardship conditions.
• Strong ability to manage and deal with diverse stakeholders (Unions, Cooperatives, Production & Market Groups).
• Should have experience in design, installation of small-scale irrigation technologies like sprinklers and drip irrigation system and knowledge of best agronomic practices associated with this technology.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills both in English and Amharic (oral or written). Experience in leading and supporting DAs and Experts.
• Well organized, analytical, and able to prioritize multiple tasks.
• Willingness to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge.
• Excellent IT skills, MS Office applications