Farmer Field School Specialist - Hyderabad

The position ia located in the FAO office in Hyderabad. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Pakistan focuses its efforts on poverty reduction, food security, sustainable livelihoods and rural development. FAO has partnered with the Government of Pakistan on research and development, training, extension services and strengthening of the staff capacity in planning and policy making. FAO has supported improvements in agricultural policy analysis, strengthened institutions. Enhanced integrated area development and expanded participation of marginalized and vulnerable communities in sustainable development.

The positions are envisioned under GCF funded “Transforming Indus Basin with Climate Resilient Agriculture and Water Management” project.

Modelling of climate change scenarios for Pakistan shows that if agriculture and water management in the Indus River Basin continue along a ‘business as usual’ pathway, increasing temperatures and changes in precipitation will pose serious threats to the future livelihoods of farmers and to the Pakistani agricultural sector. In response to this challenge, the GCF funded project, “Transforming Indus Basin with Climate Resilient Agriculture and Water Management”, will help shift Pakistan and Indus Basin agriculture from its current situation of high vulnerability toward an alternative paradigm wherein better information and farming practices will significantly increase resilience to climate change. To do this, the project will develop the country’s capacity to get and use the information it needs to cope with the impacts of climate change on agriculture and water management by putting in place state-of-the art technology (Component 1); building farmers resilience to climate change through skills, knowledge and technology (Component 2), and creating a wider enabling environment for continuous adaptation and expanded sustainable uptake of climate-resilient approaches (Component 3).

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Pakistan, the direct supervision of Assistant FAO Representative (Program), Technical Advisor, and in close coordination with International Officers in Hyderabad, the Farmer Field School Specialist will undertake the following activities;

Develop, implement, provide training/capacity building and Monitoring and Evaluation of Farmer Field School (FFS), Livestock FFS (LFFS), Farmer Business School (FBS) as key mechanisms to deliver the project’s capacity building and services for beneficiary farmers.

• Develop, maintain and update database/record of FFS, LFFS and FBS established in the project areas
• Conduct evaluation (baseline, midterm and final) of various schools under the domain of the capacity development.
• Compilation and consolidation of the agency wise monthly sessional progress reports of the FFS, LFFS and FBS activities.
• Monitor the quality and assess the impact of the schools in consultation with the project team
• Assist in development and review of TOT curriculum and train FFS, LFFS and FBS facilitators.
• Conduct training need assessment and design refreshers to improve the knowledge of local agriculture department staff
• Establish and maintain close coordination with all Green sector line departments of Sindh to prepare comprehensive capacity development plan for farmers
• Join in regular field visit, oversee the progress of FFS, LFFS, FBS, identify their strength and weakness and provide necessary suggestions and feedback to the facilitators and improve the quality of the schools.
• Design, develop, and introduce an effective methodology for participatory M&E and assessing the impacts of the schools, in consultation with the project team, particularly M&E Specialist, FFS facilitators and Technical Advisor;
• Keep close coordination with other project staff, contribute to the preparation of annual work plan based on the needs and priorities of the project, and report the progress on regular basis.
• Ensure participation of women and youth in training programme and develop a cadre of community based trainers to facilitate learning opportunities
• Assist the National Agronomist in preparation and delivery of training programme on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), Conservation Agriculture and other relevant approaches;
• Play a lead role on dissemination of CSA good practices, development of IEC material and roll out of context specific CSA practices and technologies;
• Facilitate other specialists within the project team