Summary
Date Posted: Monday, November 21, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Organizational setting
Integrated Seed and Sector Development Uganda (ISSD Uganda) is an independent local NGO in Uganda, which aims to be a leading agricultural development organization in fostering resilient seed and food systems for sustainable agricultural production. ISSD Uganda builds on the impactful outcomes and experiences of the successfully implemented seed projects that focused on; seed sector transformation; capacity building and knowledge transfer; partnerships and sector coordination, as well as supporting fragile communities including refugees.

Project overview
Restoring Resilience of highland farmer communities and watersheds in Uganda is a 4-year project funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kampala. The project is a land restoration and farming systems project in the Western and South Western Highlands of Uganda, implemented in a collaborative partnership between Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR) as lead partner, and ISSD Uganda, as the local implementing partner. The project works through three pathways to achieve its goal to build resilient farmer communities and watersheds in the highlands of Uganda. In Pathway 1 “resilient farming systems” the project focuses on empowerment and motivation of farmer households to work towards establishing resilient farming systems through the PIP approach; Pathway 2 “watershed restoration” focusses on restoring natural resources and ecosystem functioning to enable restored watershed resilience; and Pathway 3 “improved marketing” focusses on improved marketing opportunities for all farmers directly engaged in the project, and the wider community. The project headquarters will be in Fortportal.

Position overview
The Farming Systems Expert focuses on resilient farming systems in Pathway 1, and is responsible for supporting farmers to achieve sustainable farm and land management through diverse crops and farm activities which increase productivity and reduce land degradation. The position is also responsible for development of training materials and providing technical support to training of field staff on agro- technical aspects of the project. Support to smallholder farmers will include implementation and further development of the ‘Integrated Farm Planning’ (PIP) approach.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
The Farming Systems Expert has the following duties and responsibilities;
• Coordinate the implementation of an in-depth assessment of current farming systems in the farmer communities to identify existing crop and land management practices, opportunities and innovations to improve farm performance, as well as challenges and bottlenecks that need to be tackled (e.g., crop management, soil quality, erosion)
• Support development of, or review already available training materials on sustainable land and crop management practices to contextualise them to the local community setting
• Train groups of innovative farmers (PIs) on context specific crop/land management topics based on participatory prioritization of specific problems, causes, demands, and training needs for each village
• Work with the Innovative farmers (PIs) to establish Integrated Plot Plans (IPPs) that are covered with a combination of sustainable land use practices in all target communities and monitor their performance together with the PIs to facilitate learning and experience sharing during open days and workshops on IPPs
• Coordinate activities to scale the IPPs to more communities through validated farmer-to-farmer trainers (Crop Management Trainers)
• Coordinate and supervise the engagement of consultants that will be assigned to train farmers in specific topics of interest as selected by the community
• Establish and maintain effective links with all key project stakeholders (e.g., district authorities and other development organisations) to strengthen collaboration with the project on issues related to creating better performing farming systems
• Identify areas for synergy and promote collaboration with other projects in the region funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Kampala (EKN)
• Support the project M&E team to develop and maintain an M&E system for the project interventions especially development of a proper data collection system
• Document best practices and lessons learnt of the project and support to its out-scaling to other community of farmers
• Compile and prepare periodic progress reports highlighting progress made in creating more resilient farms within the project sites based on periodic plans
• Contribute to project newsletter articles and annual reports
• Facilitate implementation of the project baseline study and relevant research studies (as they come up) by actively contributing to their design, rollout and report writing.

Qualifications, Experience, & Experience
• Minimum of a Master’s degree in Agriculture Sciences
• Minimum 8 years’ experience in sustainable agriculture and livelihood programs, providing technical assistance to implementing diverse/integrated crop and land management practices
• Experience working in a rural highland environment with bottom-up participatory approaches
• Ability to develop training manuals and conduct trainings to farmers
• Experience with (participatory) research and evaluation of farming systems performance
• Ability to establish networks and coordination with various organizations
• Demonstrated capacity to support, advise and guide institutional networking processes with Local Government and other stakeholders
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, commitment to team work and working across disciplines
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
• Excellent language skills (written & spoken English); local languages an added advantage
• Flexible approach to take on additional responsibilities as assigned/delegated
• Willingness to travel to all project locations

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 96

Level of Education: Associate Degree

Job application procedure
To apply for a position of your interest, please find the respective detailed job description on the ISSD Uganda website via: www.issduganda.org. Then email your application (Cover Letter and CV maximum 4 pages) to hr@issduganda.org while indicating the job title and desired location in the email subject, not later than 4th December 2022 at 5:00pm EAT. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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