National Coordinator

Upon the request from the Government of Sri Lanka, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) agreed to provide technical assistance for the project titled “Climate-Smart Crop and mechanization systems Scaling-up (CSCS) - GCP/INT/398/GER. The project has been designed in cooperation with the Governments collaborating closely with the country office and all relevant national stakeholders.

Unsustainable smallholder agriculture practices are increasingly being considered responsible for worsening the degradation of the land in farmers’ fields and the encroachment into natural ecosystems. The loss of soil and soil organic matter from farmers’ fields not only instantly releases greenhouse gases to the atmosphere increasing the intensity of climate change, it also leaves the land less fertile, less productive and more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. And in the case of subsistence agriculture, the impoverishment of the land caused by unsustainable agronomic practices and climate, use of recycled seed and climate change is directly connected to the impoverishment of livelihoods. This situation becomes a barrier for any farmer, especially for young people, to invest in farming and for the agriculture sector to meet markets’ growing food demand. Successful implementation of the project will have an impact on reduced rural poverty and malnutrition by reinforcing resilience to effect of climate change and improving the efficiency and sustainability of crop systems. Increasing income levels of resource poor farmers through improving the utilization of machineries through government assisted rental services will improve their livelihoods significantly.

Reporting Lines

The National Coordinator will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the direct supervision of AFAOR (Programme), with the technical guidance of FAO AGP project coordinator, FAO Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and in close collaboration with the national partner, research institutes and extension officers.

• Establish rural centers (called Save & Grow Hubs) to increase opportunities for profit from strengthened linkages to markets.
• Strengthen local capacities on sustainable crop and mechanization systems by enabling the usage of machineries facilitated through established rural centers.
• Make the agronomic inputs and mechanization services needed to implement sustainable crop systems available locally.

• Provide general support to the day to day management of the project for effective project activity implementation at field level including budget tracking.
• Collect relevant primary and secondary data from the district and community levels as and when required;
• Assist in organizing and conducting orientation workshops/meetings in each community to explain the project objectives and activities with special emphasis on the mechanization component of the project;
• Support implementation of the project activities at the district and community levels in the consolidation of trainings and demonstrations for the Save and Grow Hubs;
• Liaise with the project team at the national level and district level implementation task groups on day to day activities in relation to the upscaling of sustainable Conservation Agriculture upscaling in the Save and Grow Hubs and provide feedback to all necessary project partners and other project staff;
• Assist the FAOLK in administrative requirements for the project.
• Prepare periodical reports and submit to the project Coordinator and concerned technical units.

• Performance evaluated and appropriate agricultural machinery selected for machinery hiring centre.
• Protocols and business models developed to implement agricultural machinery hiring concept in sustainable manner.
• Skill of farmers/ service providers improved on operation and maintenance of agricultural machinery.
• Finalization of agronomic protocols coordinated in cooperation with RRDI, FCRDI, FMRC and FMTC.
• Validation workshop for Save and Grow Business Models organized.
• Farmers and extension officers trained in the use of Conservation Agriculture practices for sustainable intensification of cropping systems in target communities in collaboration with RRDI, FCRDI, FMRC and FMTC.
• Technical reports and reports on the implementation of project activities finalized the with concerned technical units.
• Assistance to the implementation of project activities provided.
• Finalization of knowledge development products (agronomic manual, script for training video animation) coordinated in cooperation with RRDI, FCRDI, FMRC and FMTC.
• Timely land prep & seeding operations for upland and lowland demos implemented.

• University degree in Engineering, Mechanical, Production or related subjects. A Master’s degree or Chartered Qualifications in Agricultural Engineering would be considered an advantage.
• 5 – 10 years of work experience in Agriculture Machinery, field/on-farm experience on planning, implementation and monitoring of field demonstrations, climate change adaptation programmes/activities and Project management.
• Working knowledge of English is required. Working knowledge of Sinhala/Tamil would be considered an advantage.
• A National of Sri Lanka

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement