Title: Agronomist

 Location: Hargeisa, Somaliland. Positions: One (1)

Application Deadline: 06th November 2023

SOS Children’s Villages is an international social development organization, focusing on the care and support of orphans and vulnerable children. We support families and communities to build their capacity to protect and care for their children,  through our  Family  Strengthening Programmes. Where children have already lost the care of their biological family, we offer family-based care through our SOS Children’s Villages. In these ways, we support orphans and vulnerable children to be able to grow in a caring family environment. SOS upholds the rights of children and youth and works towards protecting their rights.

SOS Children’s Village in Somaliland is about to start the 2nd phase of the Climate Smart Agriculture Project (Hydroponic) to create self-employment opportunities for young people who have the talent and motivation to establish their agri-businesses in urban and semi-urban areas and upscaling smallholder farmers (women and youth) through a need-based capacity building program and financial support (a scale-up grant) to create new jobs and increase food security for the targeted communities

SOS Children’s Villages Somaliland is seeking to recruit an Agronomist who will work on our Climate Smart Agriculture Project in Hargeisa and Borama. The Agronomist will be responsible for the capacity building of young agro-entrepreneurs and existing smallholder farmers on different forms of climate-smart and urban farming techniques. He also provides coaching and mentoring support to the project startups youth corporates and smallholder farmers and contributes to the overall implementation of the project.  In addition to that, he will manage the SOS climate smart demonstration and production farm in the SOS office.

The agronomist is required to focus on developing and promoting better farming practices, and he/she should be self-motivated, detail-oriented, and analytical with excellent listening, communication, and problem-solving skills.

                    Agronomist Job Descriptions 

The Agronomist will have the follow key responsibilities

• Building capacity for project participants on climate smart farming including, different forms of hydroponic, green house building structure, drip water irrigation systems, and crop diseases prevention and production of natural pesticide.
• Provide technical advice to the project participants in the areas of green farming inputs and supplies and checking in the technical specifications of the inputs.
• Lead the project participant’s recruitment, selection process and their orientation & inspirations.
• Developing better planting, cultivation, and harvesting techniques, improving crop yield, and solving problems for clients.
• Researching and promoting agricultural strategies to counter the effects of changes in soil, climate, weather, and pest damage
• Testing samples for nutritional deficiencies, diseases, or other changes.

• Conduct market assessment and smallholder farmer capacity assessments on agricultural farming methods use, productivity scale, market value chain, and their business plans.
• Facilitate and support youth entrepreneurs/smallholders in the analyzing of agricultural crops value chains and the identification of value chain strategies and activities
• Monitor the project activities and achieve results as per result framework at both output and outcome levels through weekly and monthly monitoring
• Support enterprise revolving fund management team for selection and awarding processes of agro-business startups, smallholder scale-ups and youth-camel corporates
•  Organize and facilitate the follow-up of the trainees (Smallholder & Youth startups) together with other partners.
• Generating reports and presenting findings to management, clients, or other interested parties.
• · Generates monthly and quarterly reports on project progress and produces case studies, success stories, and learning from the participant’s various forms of businesses and farms·

Establishes, maintains, and nurtures collaborative relationships with beneficiaries, including identifying challenges, mutual solutions, and actions that are accurately tracked and attributed to the efforts

• Bachelor’s degree in agronomy, agriculture, or a related field.
• Further education and experience may be preferred.
• Additional certifications may be required.
• Ability to work outside, stand, walk, kneel, and stoop for extended periods.
• Proficiency with computers, especially MS Office and diagnostic scientific software.
• Exceptional active listening and verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong research, decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Awareness of industry trends, technology, and developments.
• Sales and presentation skills.

How to apply

: Interested applicants should send their applications with a CV and scanned copies of academic and professional certificates indicating telephone numbers and three referees on or before 06th November 2023. To: hr@sos-somaliland.org     only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We are committed to safeguarding and protecting children in our programs by having a zero-tolerance policy in this regard. We are further committed to providing a safe environment for staff and children, young people and adults with whom we work, where human rights are respected and upheld, and healthy relations are fostered by building organizational systems, capacity, and awareness on PSHEA (prevention and protection against sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse) guidelines. All our co-workers are obliged to follow our policy on Child Safeguarding and Protection, PSHEA, and Code of Conduct.

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