Business Advisor Career Opportunity in Kenya - Agronomy

Duma Works is recruiting an Agronomy Business Advisor for one of our clients. 

Our client works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. 

A non-profit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. 

Their work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities.  

With more than four decades of proven results, they believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

Program Description: The company’s Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality Program is a partnership with Nespresso SA program is designed to introduce the Nespresso AAA program to Africa in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan. 

The overarching goal is to reduce poverty of 200,000 smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia through increased coffee incomes as a result of improved yields, quality and market access to Nespresso’s AAA supply chain. 

The Nespresso AAA Program will build on the natural synergies with the BMGF-funded Coffee Initiative in Kenya and Ethiopia.
 

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

Duties and Responsibilities

• Sensitize cooperative leadership, smallholder coffee farmers and local stakeholders on the the company’s 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 the company’s values, vision, and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Any other relevant tasks as assigned by the Senior Business Advisor.

Requirements

• 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.
• Valid driving licence.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili.

Reports to: Senior Business Advisor.

Direct Reports: Farmer Trainers.

Works closely with: Business Advisors; M & E Analyst; Administration team.

Position Location: Project implementation sites in the coffee growing areas of Kenya.

How to Apply
Submit your application by email to apply@dumaworks.com marking the subject as “2036”, Your Full name &  Phone number e.g. 2036, Barack Obama, 07xxxxxxxxx.

Please include the following in your application;

1.    cover letter describing your interest

2.    curriculum vitae

3.    three years’ salary history

4.    telephone contacts of three professional referees.

Please include all requirements in a single document (pdf). 

Applications will be treated confidentially. 

If you don’t follow these instructions, your application will not go through.

Deadline for receiving applications: 31st January 2016

* When applying to any job through Duma Works, you can expect that after you apply, you will receive a confirmation email, and then an SMS alert asking you to take a basic screening test over SMS. The SMS with the test may not arrive immediately. Please be patient. The SMS test will typically be 5-8 questions to help us understand your background. Regular SMS rates apply to the test, and if you ever have any issues with the process, please reach out to 0702093793.