Program Officer – Agriculture – Heifer International

Heifer International Our goal is to help families achieve living incomes, which will allow them to feed their families daily; educate all their children; and have proper housing, water, hygiene and other essential resources. When many families gain this new sustainable income, it brings new opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural cooperatives, forming community savings and funding small businesses.

Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with some form of specially-abled.

FUNCTION:

The Program Officer- Agriculture will lead Heifer’s project activities on connecting producer owned cooperatives and self-help groups with financial institutions. The Officer will work in collaboration and consultation with the Regional Program Office (RPO) and Country Program Office (CPO) teams. S/he will lead development and execution of the overall strategic vision, goal and objectives of the agriculture component of the project.

RESPONSIBILIIES AND DELIVERABLES: (including approximate percentage effort)

Support project partners in effective project implementation and achieving project objectives (25%):

• Assist project partners in social capital building.
• Assist project partners in staff selection, orientation and capacity building.
• Assist project partners in various trainings, farmer’s field trips and exchange visits.
• Assist project partners to develop/produce market-oriented quality products.
• Ensure that training is delivered following the training module and schedule.
• Ensure that project activities are completed on-time and on-budget as per the project implementation plan.
• Ensure that activities and trainings are supervised in field and follow-up instructions are given.
• Ensure that exponential POG and PSRP are completed following the schedule.
• Assist project partners to ensure that physical passing on of gifts and assets are tracked, quality is ensured, and achieved within the approved time period.
• Ensure that PMD Pro tools (project planning, designing, project charter, RACI, Issue Log, PIP, Gantt Chart, project closing) are used across the project.

Program monitoring, review and reporting (25%):

• Ensure that the partner meets Heifer’s monitoring and evaluation requirements and deadlines.
• Review project progress (physical and financial) with partner staff on a monthly basis and ensure that reports are submitted on schedule.
• Participate in ongoing partner activities on a regular basis for quality control and improvement.
• Ensure that the activity-based reforecasting is prepared following the participatory method with appropriate stakeholders (PMC, co-funder, etc.).
• Ensure documentation and sharing of best practices.
• Promote the PSRP process at all levels of the project.
• Assist in organizing field visits of the Heifer team and other stakeholders.
• Ensure that activity-based reforecasts and fund requests are reviewed and submitted to regional and country offices as per the schedule.
• Participate in all field trainings on a quarterly basis and regularly at the initial stage of the project.
• Ensure that baseline and GIM surveys are completed each year.
• Ensure that auditors are supported, and the audit is completed successfully.

Sustainable agriculture practices (25%):

• Provide leadership to the development, roll out and effective implementation of the agricultural extension model in the project.
• Establish and lead market research to continuously evaluate the business environment to refine the model.
• Lead execution of the extension model, including on-the-ground set-up of operations, developing relevant relations with ecosystem actors, and effective flow of products and services.
• Exercise oversight on the operations of the model, with a focus on quality and diversification of products and services, capacity building, and scale up in promoting sustainable agriculture systems.
• Develop entrepreneurs as per the objectives of the project.
• Focus on SRI practices and build skills of the farmers.
• Promote a model kitchen garden effective at the FPO/farmer level.
• Promote horticulture product businesses at the FPO/farmer level.

Reporting, documentation and liaising with line agencies (15%):

• Network with relevant line departments, KVKs, and state agriculture universities at village and block levels for leveraging resources.
• Prepare official documents, reports, periodic statements and MIS reports for each project and share them with relevant stakeholders.
• Create agri-business plans for the farmers, facilitate bank and market linkages.
• Support monitoring and evaluation of the effects and impacts of the project.
• Share Heifer’s model with stakeholders and build relationships with them.
• Support the partners in mobilization of the committed co-funding (Catalytic Leverage Funding).

Optimize agricultural practices in the project (10%):

• Develop a package of practices in consultation with State Agriculture Universities and KVKs and disseminate the same in the project area.
• Conduct crop modeling, soil mapping and weather modeling.
• Prepare and conduct advisory sessions and trainings for farmers, policy makers and other stakeholders.
• Analyze agricultural data and report on findings.
• Maintain records of agricultural yields and services.
• Analyze soil composition as it relates to plant growth.
• Be actively involved in practices related to waste matter, increased production and irrigation practices.
• Promote organic agriculture across the project area.

 QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:

A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a recognized university in the fields of Agriculture Economics, Business Administration, Rural Development, Enterprise Development or other related field plus a minimum of five (5) years of field and technical experience with commercial sector, agribusiness development in a mix of economic growth/trade, value chain competitiveness, investment promotion, or agriculture development.

• Clear understanding of the goat, vegetable, agriproducts value chains.
• Knowledge of enterprise development and linkages to poverty alleviation.
• Strong consumer marketing, financial analysis and management skills.
• Experience in supporting and monitoring field-based programs in the country.
• Proven experience in building the capacity of partner institutions to document and disseminate industry information, manage knowledge, measure progress and plan and advocate within the industry.
• Track record of building strong client and stakeholder relationships.
• Significant experience in building public/private partnerships
• Experience of working with SHGs, farmer groups, and Farmer Producer Organizations.

ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong interpersonal/people management skills.
• Excellent organizational and leadership skills.
• Proficient knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets, presentation tools, electronic mail (Microsoft Office preferred) and Internet.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Hindi, English and other local languages, both oral and written.
• Experience in the commercial sector with skills to develop and evaluate investment opportunities and promote such opportunities to financial institutions.
• Ability to generate innovative solutions in work situations.
• Ability to prepare and present documents in a well-designed and attractive format with superior attention to detail.
• Ability to understand, appreciate and implement Heifer’s Values-Based Holistic Community Development model.
• Demonstrated creativity, ability to think systematically, willingness and ability to incorporate innovative solutions.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively throughout India.
• Ability to work with sensitive information and maintain confidentiality.
• Ability to manage and execute multiple tasks with little supervision while meeting sometimes inflexible deadlines.