National Project Personnel- District Field Technicians

Organizational Setting

The PROMOVE Agribiz (GCP/MOZ/127/EC) is a programme supporting the development of small-scale, sustainable commercial agriculture in 10 districts of Nampula and Zambezia provinces. The programme aims at enhancing small producers' productivity and resilience and improving the availability of public and commercial support services, including financial and rural extension, as well as helping smallholders' and SMEs to better integrate in rural markets and selected value chains with viable, inclusive and competitive business models.

The programme is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER) and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), through their relevant national directorates and institutions, as well as the provincial and local governments of both provinces. Specifically, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) support focuses on market-driven sustainable agriculture, resilience, Agri-food value chain development and inclusive rural markets.

At the field level, FAO will provide technical assistance to the Districts Directorate for Economic Activities (SDAE) to improve the availability of support services and increased access by MSMEs and smallholder farmers to agriculture and livestock know-how through 1. Participatory Extension Approaches; 2. Strengthening the local seed systems through the promotion of improved varieties and the seed multiplication, and 3. Access to quality inputs through an electronic voucher (e-voucher).

FAO aims to reach 720 groups with 18,000 smallholder farmers trained on farming and business agriculture and 35,000 household accessing as beneficiary of e-voucher.

Reporting Lines

The District Field Technicians will be in close coordination with the District Directorate for Economic Activities (SDAE), under the direct supervision of the Hub Coordinators (Nametil, Alto Molocue and Mocuba) and the overall supervision of the Project Coordinator.

Technical Focus

Implement the field activities of PROMOVE Agribiz to reach the outcome and targets of the programme with the smallholder farmers and their groups in close coordination with SDAE and other relevant partners.

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Liaise among communities with Hub Coordinator and other Hub experts the implementation of Project activities.
• Contact community leaders, encourage farmers to become group members and train famers on resilient and sustainable farming and livestock practices.
• Participate in the planning meeting, implement, follow up, monitor and evaluate the project activities at district level in accordance with the programme M&E strategy.
• Identify famers that meet with selection criteria and contribute with the FFS specialists to the organization of the training of farmer facilitators at district level.
• Structure and moderate ordinary and extraordinary sessions of FFS network.
• Set up demonstration plots (demoplots) of improved varieties at the community level and organize field days in coordination with Seed Specialist at the Hub level.
• Support in the identification of seed multiplicators and provide technical assistance in the field management.
• Prepare and follow up the seed inspectors visits in the different phases of certification of the seed multiplication fields.
• Carry out field days to disseminate results of demoplot of varieties and learning plots of FFS.
• Evaluate the progress level of farmer groups through the application of Business Readiness Index and support the transition from FFS to FBS.
• Train farmer groups though Farmer Business School (FBS) approach.
• Support farmer groups in the elaboration of micro-projects and follow up its implementation and management.
• Register beneficiary communities, groups and farmers into digital platforms as well as the activities carry out by the technicians and results achieved by the programme.
• Guarantee the registration of farmers into the e-voucher scheme and provide technical assistance to agro dealers during the implementation of the activities
• Identify promising farmers associations and private sector actor (e.g. agro-dealers) as potential partners for the project.
• Monitor the quality of agriculture inputs commercialized by agro dealers within the e-voucher scheme
• Contribute with the setup of Home and School gardens and promote the nutrition and food safety at the household and women groups’ level.
• Follow-up of the Letter of Agreement planned activities and provide technical assistance to SDAE supervisors in the technical reporting.
• Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Completed studies in Agriculture, Livestock or Agrarian Economy.
• At least four years of experience in rural extension.
• Knowledge and skills to communicate in the native tongues spoken in the Nampula and Zambézia provinces (Emakwa, Elomwe and Chuabo)
• Previous experience with international organizations;
• Mozambican nationality.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Proven communication and teamwork skills.
• Information and Communication Technologies skills.
• Computer skills (MS Office and Internet Explorer).
• Technicians who are not currently working in the Extension Public Services.
• Holding Driver´s License for motorcycle.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION