Position: Farmer Field Officer
Reports to: Outreach Project Manager
Supervises: Farmer Field Assistants
Location: Kisii county, Kenya

Vacancy

Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) seeks to recruit a competent and highly motivated individual as a Farmer Field Officer for its Farmer communication Outreach project based in Kisii County.

About Biovision Africa Trust
BvAT, a not-for-profit organization established in Kenya in 2009 is situated on the main campus of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kasarani, Nairobi.

The Trust’s goal is to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Kenya and other African countries, through dissemination of information and knowledge and building capacity of famers for uptake of appropriate technology in order to improve human, animal, plant, and environmental health.

BvAT runs a Farmer Communication Programme in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), the African Union Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) initiative in nine countries and in collaboration with PELUM Uganda coordinates the Knowledge Hub for Eastern Africa (KHEA) in five countries under the global Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture in Africa (KCOA) covering the five regions of Africa – West, East, North, Central and Southern Africa.

Job Purpose:
The overall purpose of this job is to contribute to the promotion of ecological sustainable agricultural practices and technologies through participatory, market-oriented approaches to meet the needs of smallholder farmers while staying relevant to the context of the project.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Establish and update database of farmers being (currently submitted monthly via Kobo Collect) reached through FCP activities.
• Carry out farmer trainings to farmer community groups to provide relevant knowledge and skills development on ecological sustainable agriculture practices and technologies, based on the selected priority value chains.
•  Establishing, preparing and maintaining demonstration plots for learning purposes to promote the adoption of organic and ecologically sustainable farming methodologies.
• Participate with IEC materials in field days, agriculture shows and exhibitions.
• Organize individual farm visits and carryout follow ups to monitor the progress and any improvements.
• Plan for community-based exchange visits to learn new technologies from other farmers; leverage on such platforms to sensitize the public on the BvAT’s mandate.
• Respond to farmers’ requests/issues on any challenges they are facing by providing timely advice and feedback based on the nature of problem.
•  Train school children from participating schools on organic agriculture and agroecology.
•  Establish partnerships with like-minded, faith-based organizations, NGOs and the county government and community-based organizations.
• Contribute to content development to the TOF magazine, TOF radio and Infonet reference material to increase awareness on organic farming and importance of environment conservation.
•  Timely preparation of monthly workplans in the KoboCollect platform.
•  Undertake daily update of field activities and compile monthly reports in a timely manner and submit to the Outreach Manager.
• Record and compile articles and success stories from the farmers/beneficiaries.
• Complete in a timely manner staff appraisal with the Farmer Field Assistants in line with BvAT’s Appraisal system.
• Any other responsibilities that may be assigned by the supervisor from time to time

• Working Relationships:
  Internal Relationships: Outreach Project Officer and Outreach Manager.
  External Relationships: Ministry of Agriculture, County Government departments, local Chiefs and leaders, and Partners in the agricultural sector.

  Required Qualifications:

  • Degree in either organic agriculture, agricultural extension, rural development, crop production, livestock development, community development or any other closely related discipline in agriculture
  • Minimum of at least 3 years of relevant experience.
  • A certificate in project management/ monitoring and evaluation will be an added advantage.

  Required Skills and Competencies:
  Technical Skills

  • Knowledge in organic agriculture
  • Report writing skills.
  • Data collection skills
  • Ability to network and build partnerships.
  • Monitoring and evaluation
  • Networking

  Behavioural Skills

  • Good communication skill
  • Ability to work with minimal supervision.
  • Self-discipline
  • Flexibility
  • Creativity

  Responsibility for finances and physical assets:
  The job holder has accountability for assets such as advances, computers, laptops, motorbikes, furniture, printers, books.

  Decision making:
  The jobholder has no final authority on key decisions in the department other than routine decisions related to execution of work.

  Information
  The job holder has moderate access to confidential information – details of the farmer when collecting data

  HOW TO APPLY?

  If you believe you qualify for this position, please apply with your CV and cover letter as one file indicating a summary of your key qualifications and expected salary and benefits to [email protected] and Cc. [email protected] with the job title: Farmer Field Officer , on the subject line to be received not later than 4th August, 2023.We will not accept applications without a CV and cover letter. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interviews.

  Biovision Africa Trust is an equal opportunity employer.