• The Program Officer will provide technical support to the field team in key programmatic areas such as agricultural productivity and sustainability, Horticulture, and financial inclusion. She/he will provide technical expertise in resilient agriculture with a special focus on climate-smart agricultural production, agricultural extension, agribusiness & value chain development, and smallholder farmer financial inclusion. She/he must have extensive experience in smallholder agricultural intervention, farmer training, and extension services.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement strategies to enhance agricultural productivity through sustainable practices and conducting training of trainers (ToT) to community structures
• Support the project coordinator to coordinate and implement all Nuru impact & agricultural program activities in the intervention communities with a focus on achieving Nuru’s vision and strategic objectives
• Facilitate and guide farmers on appropriate cropping patterns, and farming techniques through the establishment of demo plots to promote the adoption of good agricultural practices and savings & loan activities to promote social cohesion and increase income.
• Directly responsible for managing assigned Nuru intervention communities and integrating Nuru organization within the assigned communities ensuring organizational acceptance by the communities.
• Facilitate the establishment of farmer associations and provide support in their transitioning into well-structured farmer’s organizations.
• Directly responsible for providing the technical content on all agricultural extension training materials, training curriculums, and financial inclusion training materials.
• Deliver one-on-one extension services to farmers and provide other on-farm extension advisory support services to the farmers.
• Establish and maintain successful relationships with Market actors, implementing partners, community leaders, and other key stakeholders within implementation field sites.
• Prepare high-quality monthly Activity Progress Reports and ensure they are submitted on time, document and share lessons learned, success stories as well as the general situation and community updates and feedback
• Exemplify the servant leadership philosophy of Nuru Nigeria and work with other team members to build an organizational culture of service and a farmer-first principle.
• Foster organizational development through strict adherence to Nuru’s values and principles ensuring accountability and high performance at all times.
• Perform any other duties as required by and instructed by the Project Coordinator

Qualification and Job Requirements

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (MSc is an added advantage) in general agriculture, animal husbandry, agricultural economics, agriculture extension, rural livelihoods, etc.
• Minimum of 3 years working experience in relevant fields with a local or international NGO
• Experienced and exposure to field operations in both emergency and recovery programs
• Experience in agricultural extension services
• Experience working with farmer associations/ groups or village savings and loan clubs
• Experience and comfortable working in rural areas and with rural people, who have low literacy level
• Sustainable agriculture production and natural resource management knowledge
• Proficient in computer skills (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Google Drive & Applications, Internet, etc.)
• Excellent presentation skills, and capacity to deliver appropriate and relevant training to a target audience
• Very good communication, analytical, and reporting skills
• Ability to work in a cross-cultural, cross-functional environment and across departments
• High motivation for improvement and ability to deliver in a challenging environment
• Excellent Written and spoken English Language
• Proficient in local languages such as Hausa or Bura