Agronomy Advisor at TechnoServe Kenya

Position Description

• The Agronomy Advisor shall support the implementation of strategies that will enable clients to achieve sustainable increases in coffee quality and yields.

Key roles and responsibility

• Sensitize cooperative leadership, smallholder coffee farmers and local stakeholders on the TechnoServe coffee project work.
• Implement existing strategies to provide assigned cooperatives with agronomy training and with structured post-training farm visits to improve adoption.
• Train and advise farmers being assisted by the project on coffee agronomy best practices with the objective of helping them to improve coffee yields and quality.
• Train, mentor, coach and support assigned Farmer Trainers on all technical and operational aspects of their work and in relationship with farmers. This includes assisting them to set performance goals, continuous assessment of performance and giving feedback.
• Participate in the implementation of the defined project monitoring, measurement and evaluation activities that ensure accurate and consistent capture of date for project reporting and documenting of the impact of our work.
• Create linkages between cooperative leadership, farmers and suppliers of recommended inputs and other farm requirements.
• Collect, collate, validate and submit the specified project data and clients’ reports within stipulated time lines.
• Cultivate and manage good relationship with clients both at leadership and farmer levels as well as with key industry stakeholders and community leaders at local levels.
• Keep abreast of developments concerning coffee at the cooperative and in the local community and regularly report these.
• Understand, respect and promote TechnoServe’s values, vision, and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Any other relevant tasks as assigned by the Senior Business Advisor.

 Required skills and experience

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, agronomy, horticulture or related agricultural sciences.
• At least three years’ professional experience – ideally in the private sector – in one or more of the following areas: coffee processing or agronomy; business or cooperative management; SME development; agriculture; training; extension services.
• Demonstrated good understanding of the Kenya coffee industry and especially the cooperatives sector.
• Possess an aptitude and skills for training adults in a field set up.
• Strong planning skills and ability to generate innovative solutions in highly dynamic work situations.
• Demonstrated ability to prepare and present well-written, cohesive analyses and reports.
• Strong interpersonal, collaborative and cross-cultural skills.
• Willingness to spend significant time in project implementation sites located in rural areas.
• Able to ride a motorbike for work purposes.
• Valid driving / riding licence.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili.

Success Factors

• Competency is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) directly related to successful performance on the job.

Core Competencies include:

• Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
• Team Work/ Relationships: Works co-operatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve a common goal.  Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.
• Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.
• Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.
• Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates open exchange of ideas and information; uses appropriate non-verbal communication.
• Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyze situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution.  Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.
• Results Oriented/ High Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.
• Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.
• Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.

Job Specific/Technical Competencies include:

• Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.
• Donor/Partnership Management: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
• Analysis, Research, Report Writing: Experience in business planning and analysis, modeling for feasibility and execution. Able to analyze and express oneself clearly in business writing.
• Innovative Mindset: Curious inquiries, asks questions and seeks out information from multiple sources, learns from mistakes, sees change as an opportunity.