Project Officer- Agriculture And Horticulture – CARE

CARE is a not-for-profit organisation working in India for over 68 years, focusing on alleviating poverty and social injustice. We do this through well-planned and comprehensive projects in health, education, livelihoods and disaster preparedness and response. Our overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalised communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods.

During FY 2018-19, CARE India directly reached out to 37.2 million people through 43 projects across 14 states, covering more than 80+ districts. We are part of the CARE International Confederation, working in 100 countries for a world where people live with dignity and security.

CARE India seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

Our goal is to ensure that women and girls from the most marginalized communities are empowered, live in dignity and their households have secure and resilient lives. CARE India aims to accomplish this goal by working with 50 million people to help them have quality health, education, livelihoods and overcome the effects of disasters.

Our employees are committed to CARE’s values, Code of Conduct, and safeguarding commitments towards a safe workplace for all, including the principle of ‘do no harm’. They are also responsible to uphold and strengthen our safeguarding commitments in their role. To know more about our safeguarding policies please visit our website link given below.

POSITION/DESIGNATION Project Officer (PO) – Agriculture and Horticulture

GRADE/LEVEL Contractual position (1 Year renewable contract based on performance and organizational need analysis) at Grade G

Band Junior Management

Grade G

PROJECT/UNITE Empowering Smallholder Farmers through promotion of sustainable agriculture and water harvesting & conservation methods in Bathinda, Punjab

PROJECT DURATION March 1, 2021 to February 28, 2024

Required Experience 3 – 6 Years

REPORTS TO Project Manager

LOCATION Three blocks (Bathinda, Phul and Maur) in District Bathinda, Punjab

TRAVEL80% including daily field travel, district head quarter, state and national travel as required.

PROJECT DETAILS

(NA if not applicable)Project goal is to empower 12,000 smallholder farmer households through promoting sustainable agriculture and water harvesting and water conservation resulting in enhanced income for the smallholder farmers. The objective of the project are as follows:

§ Objective 1: Strengthening Community Based Organizations by building their capacities

§ Objective 2: Natural Resource Management through promotion of water conservation and water harvesting methods

§ Objective 3: Promotion of sustainable agriculture practices within smallholder farmers

§ Objective 4: Enterprise promotion and support

§ Objective 5: Enabling environment creation for enterprise and smallholder farmers

JOB SUMMARY

Project Officer- Agriculture and Horticulture is to be primarily contracted for 12 months (may be extended as per need/requirement for a maximum of further 23 months) to support the project located in Bathinda, Phul and Maur Block in Bathinda District, Punjab. Project Officer- Agriculture and Horticulture is the resource person to bring in innovation, project execution and strategies to realize the vision of sustainable agriculture production of diverse agriculture and horticulture crops supporting small and marginal landholding farmers particularly women farmer.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead all project interventions with respect to identification and selection of relevant agriculture and horticulture crops, promotion of improved package of practices, through capacity building of Community Based Organizations and its members.
• Lead all project interventions with respect to identification and promotion of relevant crops in the project area.
• Prepare detailed strategy and implementation plan for promotion of improved package of practices for introduction of relevant crops in the project area.
• Designing and developing detailed training module for training of CBOs and Community Resource Person on relevant trainings such as land preparation, seed treatment, soil testing, seed sowing, irrigation, pest and weed management, and chemical free farming etc. for promotion of agriculture and horticulture crops.
• Facilitate identification and selection of Community Resource Person and train them on relevant thematic areas with respect to agriculture and horticulture.
• Design and facilitate demonstrations of relevant technologies and agriculture inputs with respect to improved cultivation of relevant crops in the area.
• Ensure that the target households are extended technical support strictly adhering to the SOP, continuous monitoring, leadership of Community Resource Persons (CRPs), M & E systems, timely procurement, following accounts & procurement systems, etc. with planning, ownership and prior approval of project manager and Deputy Director.
• To ensure technical support to demo farmers as well as influenced farmers as and when required on water usage.
• Producing designs, both initial outlines and full plans, timely monitoring, on-field demonstration and support to CRPs and farmers, donor reporting.
• Support to the team in designing and organizing state level events, policy discourse and representing various forums.
• Actively participate in discussion forums, workshops, seminars, write shops and other appropriate events.
• Produce papers, learning materials and bulletins from time to time for wider packaging of project & CISSD.
• Plan, design, build capacity, support concurrent monitoring, necessitate evaluation studies and facilitate knowledge products around approaches, strategies and tools to generate demand around and secure sustainable models encompassing, sustainable production of nutrition rich food.

Other responsibilities:

• Be accountable for timely accomplishment of responsibilities on relevant thematic area line items with respect to the project DIP and Workplan and generate adequate Means of Verifications (MoVs).
• Raise purchase requests (PRs) and closure of PRs in consultation with the supervisor, for products and services deemed necessary towards undertaking prior-approved project activities with discussion and prior approval of the Project Manager and Deputy Director as per CISSD Procurement Policy and functions Provide domain related documentation such as training reports, technical assessment summary, activity cost-estimation, etc.

Perform any other task assigned by the line manager as per organizational requirement.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Support Functions i.e. Finance, Admin, Procurement, HR and other stakeholder of Care India

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• Master of Science in Agriculture / Horticulture from reputed institution / Government recognized agriculture university with related experience of at least 3 years.

OR

• Bachelor of Science in Agriculture / Horticulture from reputed institution / Government recognized agriculture university with related experience of at least 5 years.
• Hands on experience in working extensively on agriculture and horticulture crops.
• Experience in conducting training of Community Resource Person or smallholder farmers in adopting and adapting to best practices and newer climate resilient farming.
• Experience of working in a large project and as part of a diverse team.
• Women candidates are encouraged to apply for this position.

Preferred:

• Familiarity with agro-ecological conditions and climate challenges in similar geographies in the country and exclusively desirable is experience of work in Punjab.
• Experience and interest in working with women farmers and their groups at grass-root level.
• Understanding of adult learning principles.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

Communication skills:

• Strong facilitation /training and communication skills.

Language skills:

• Good writing and oral communication skills in English and Hindi.  Candidates with proficiency in Punjabi reading, writing and speaking will be preferred.

Research skills:

• Understanding of gender dimensions within Climate Smart Agriculture and Nutrition Security domains.
• Working with multi-diversified team and in research and knowledge product development with ability to independently assume responsibility with minimal guidance from supervisors to produce learning materials.

Team Management & Collaboration / People skills: 

• Ability work in a team and build capacity and connect to community stakeholders.

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

• Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities with attention to details.

Operational excellence (Project / Program / Process management):

• Strong leadership and community mobilization skills and experience
• Familiarity with social, employment and schemes in the state with information on production potential and constraints.
• Experience and interest in working with FPOs and SHGs at grass-root level.

Understanding on adult learning principles.