Agronomist at Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)

Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) is a small, but fast-growing global non-profit that uses tech, data science and behavioral economics to provide targeted information to farmers in developing countries. Providing the right information to the right people, in the right way and at the right time, increases incomes, protects the environment and improves well-being. We are evidence-based: we test our interventions with randomized control trials to prove our impact and cost effectiveness, to simultaneously learn from and improve our service, and also to demonstrate our value to funders and partners. There are few programs in international development that are as demonstrably cost-effective as ours. We currently work in eight countries in Africa and Asia, and we are expanding as more governments and organizations look for innovative ways to use new technologies to get information to people across the developing world.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Agronomist

Location: Abuja, Nigeria (temporarily work-from-home due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, until it is safe to work from PAD’s office)
Position details: Full time
Start date: As soon as possible

Job Description

We are looking for a driven, creative and independent person to join a high-performing, flexible team as an Agronomist to support PAD’s new operations in Nigeria.
You will work in a non-hierarchical team and have opportunities to work closely with PAD staff and substantially contribute to PAD’s programs that test new ideas, measure their impacts, and scale them up.

Responsibilities

The Agronomist will be responsible to provide ongoing agronomic expertise and support to PAD’s operations in Nigeria.
The Agronomist will report to the Nigeria Research and Operations Manager and will work with the relevant Program Leads and project team members.
The position will be located in Abuja, Nigeria and will temporarily be a work-from-home position due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
When it is safe to do so, this position will be based from PAD’s office in Abuja, Nigeria and will require frequent travel to field locations in Nigeria. PAD is a start-up organization and will require flexibility from all staff with regards to roles and responsibilities.

The Agronomist will be responsible for the following tasks:

Work closely with PAD team members and our partner organizations to execute project implementation;
Provide overall agronomy expertise and information to the team in Nigeria;
Gather and compile scientific evidence on key agriculture topics to better inform the design of mobile phone-based agricultural advisory services in Nigeria;
Collect and maintain an extensive database of all major crops in Nigeria, and map out season-wise and territory-wise crop prospects;
Support current projects that PAD undertakes in content development, simplification, and customization with regard to major agronomic practices, pest and disease management, post-harvest management, etc;
Develop, refine and revise agronomic content of mobile phone-based agricultural advisory services implemented by PAD and/or other partners;
In collaboration with partner organizations and PAD staff, the Agronomist will be responsible for exploring new engagement areas and new project opportunities;
Support and supervise other (junior) agronomist staff within the team;
Provide support in managing relationships with key partners across multiple projects and provide technical backstopping to partner organizations;
Contribute to project M&E activities, including designing of monitoring tools, regular fieldwork to collect monitoring data, and preparation of monitoring reports.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications and Experience:

Master’s degree in agronomy, agricultural sciences, crop production or agroecology;
At least 5 years’ experience implementing agriculture, livelihood or value chain development projects in the developing world;
At least 2 years’ experience working directly with smallholder production systems in sub-Saharan Africa;
Practical experience drafting agricultural curricula and implementing trainings;
Experience carrying out focus group discussions and gathering qualitative data from farmers;
Strong written and oral communication skills in English;
Strong organizational and planning skills;
Experience in writing reports and communicating scientific topics to laypeople;
Willingness and ability to work under tight timelines, and flexibility to engage in multiple projects;
Willingness to travel to field sites in Nigeria and internationally;
Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision;
Experience and ability to work in multicultural settings;
Ability to engage effectively with diverse stakeholders.