Agronomist Officer – Burao, Somalia

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Position Title: Agronomist Officer

Duty Station: Burao, Togdheer

Employment Type: Full-time

Reports To: Project Manager

Organizational Background

Barwaaqo Voluntary Organization (BVO) is a non-political, non-governmental, and non-profit making development action-oriented and advocacy organization that was founded in 1996 by a committed gender balanced group in Somaliland. BVO strives to perform social development work in Somaliland and has been implementing climate change, environmental protection, and livelihood programs in the country, which enables the finding of solutions to Somaliland’s environmental challenges. BVO fights hunger and promotes poverty reduction, human rights, women’s and children’s rights, and justice for all.

BVO has also been involved in women’s political participation and economic empowerment, and provides FGM awareness campaigns as well as implements projects aimed to tackle gender-based violence (GBV) in Somaliland. BVO operates in all six regions of Somaliland.

Position Summary:

BVO is seeking to hire a qualified and experienced Agronomist to technically support and the implementation of the Food Assistance Program (FAP) project, entitled Nourishing Communities: Restoring Resilience through improved food and nutrition security to vulnerable rural and displaced communities in Somaliland, particularly in Buroa District, Tog-dheer Region. The Agronomist will play a crucial role in ensuring sustainable agricultural practices, increasing crop yields, and improving the livelihoods of local farmers and among other activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Responsible for the implementation of the assigned project in the targeted districts/area and lead field teams to carry out a high-quality implementation.
• Ensuring high-performance level of their team and ensuring that activities and targets are met as per the program work plan.
• She/he will provide management, operational, and technical support to assist the project team in the implementation of the project.
• She/he will be responsible for facilitating appropriate community involvement in the stages of the program activities (local leaders, local authorities and local communities).
• Lead community mobilization, sensitization, identification, verification and registration of beneficiaries and make sure beneficiary data is correct and complete and provide feedback on the process.
• Enhancing community resilience that may include through implementation of high quality interventions e.g. improving farming systems.
• Ensure that BVO and partner approaches are well disseminated to raise awareness amongst beneficiaries ensuring compliance of policies and procedures on project implementations.
• She/he will be responsible for community entry, developing and maintaining relationships with all project stakeholders.

• Responsible for empowering the communities to enable them adapt to unforeseen natural shocks through the creation of innovative livelihood options and system strengthening.
• Responsible for ensuring equal participation by all categories of the community, taking into consideration issues regarding gender mainstreaming, age groups, PWDs, PLW, and household with more children within the target communities.
• Create strategies in improving crop production and management by promoting better agricultural strategies to counter the effects of poor soils, climate change, weather and pest damage.
• Conduct training for farmers on Farmers Field School, Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Home Gardening
• Lead in the identification of project beneficiaries in collaboration with Partner (ACTED team) the local community and the local authorities using community-based approaches.
• Lead in farmer’s capacity building/training and the establishment of demonstration sites to educate farmers on new/improved farming technologies.
• Responsible for developing distribution plans for agriculture inputs (tools and seeds, tractor hours) to ensure the timely use of the inputs in enabling participating farmers for the best result.
• Responsible for leading community mobilization, referrals and education on food and nutrition security through engagement.
• Responsible for performing any other duties as required by the line Manager or management team.

The ideal candidate for the Agronomist position should possess the following qualifications and skills:

• Bachelor’s in Agronomy, Agriculture sciences, or a related field.
• Minimum 2 to 5 year of relevant work experiences
• Proven experience in agronomy and crop management, preferably working with small holder farmers.
• Strong knowledge of sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices.
• Good understanding of local agricultural challenges and the ability to work closely with local communities in Togdheer region.
• Effective communication and training skills.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical abilities.
• Proficiency in relevant computer applications and data analysis tools.
• Willingness to travel to project sites within the region.

Proficiency in English language

How to apply

BVO is committed to offering fair remuneration based on qualifications and experience.

If you meet the above requirements, please send your cover letter, resume, and contact details of three professional references in single document PDF format to bvo@barwaaqo.org with the subject line ” Agronomist Officer” not later than November 9, 2023, at 2:00 pm.

Due to the volume of applications, BVO receives, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.