Call for an Agronomist

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Agrisud International

Agrisud International, a non-profit organization under French law, has been taking actions for 30 years on economic, social and environmental issues aimed at building a more sustainable and fairer world.

Its strategy: to promote Very Small family farming Enterprises (VSEs) and the agro-ecological transition of territories.

For sustainable economic development in the agricultural sector, its approach is based on three fundamental principles: agroecology, entrepreneurship and territories.

With its partners, it fights against precariousness by developing sustainable economic activities. It supports agricultural systems based on family farms, valuing local resources, protecting biodiversity and resilient to climate change. It implements territorial projects which are socially equitable, economically viable and ecologically responsible.

Agrisud pursues its objective in developing countries.

IDEAS project in Vietnam

The Hoang Lien National Park (HLNP) is made up of five communes populated mainly by Hmong, Day and Dao ethnic minorities living from agriculture, forestry and traditional handicrafts. To date, farming families face many challenges in agriculture and poverty rates remain high.

The main causes of poverty are: the lack of agricultural land due to the increase in demography and the classification of the territory as a protected natural park (since 2002) leading to the prohibition of opening new fields of cultivation; vulnerability of crops and livestock to climate extreme events; low diversification of income-generating activities.

In this context, the IDEAS project (Income Development for Ethnic minorities based on Agriculture Sustainability) supports families from ethnic minorities living in the park and its periphery, with the objectives of improving and diversifying agricultural activities for food security and sustainable income generation, and on the other, poverty reduction to reduce the pressure on natural resources and help preserve the local biodiversity of the HLNP.

General objective: To support the technical and economic development of agricultural systems in PNHL territory by contributing to the preservation of natural resources.

Specific objective: To promote sustainable agricultural systems for families of ethnic minority groups living in and on the periphery of the PNHL through the improvement and diversification of agro-ecological production, the development of fair value-chains supported by the cooperative and the implementation of awareness-raising actions for sustainable and inclusive development.

Expected outcomes:

• Continue the technical strengthening and professionalization of farms and their groups.
• Develop an offer of agricultural services for farms through the Hoang Lien Cooperative, master farmers and agricultural groups.
• Strengthen the capacity of local actors, particularly women, to become involved in the implementation of coordinated actions in support of sustainable and inclusive agricultural development.

Roles and responsibilities of the Agronomist

The Agronomist’s primary role is to provide technical reinforcement to the project team and its partners to better support family farms and farmer organizations for sustainable livelihood development, working under the direct hierarchy of the project coordinator.  

The Agronomist will have the responsibilities to:

Provide technical reinforcement to the project Technicians and local partners

• Review the technical capacity of the local staff and develop appropriate training programs to improve local staff’s capacity;
• Contribute to the implementation of surveys on potential agri-products adapted to the market demandto make recommendation for the local authorities and farmers;
• Facilitate the integration of the local products in local governmental long-term’sagricultural plan (at communal and in line with the New Rural development strategy at district level);
• Work with local states and other related stakeholders for the development of territorial project aiming at developing sustainable livelihood for ethnic minority farmerswith focus on the basis of public-private partnership and biological benefit sharing machenism.

Support Income Generating Activities for target beneficiaries

• Identify current income generating activities in the project area and assess economic value chain for each commodity: markets, traders, consumers, places, prices
• Support for partner organization and project staff developing new proposals
• Support district staff from relevant agencies and mass organization to assess the importance of income generating in the project area: incomes generated, possibilities for improvement.
• Assistant in the recruitment of external consultants (contact, TOR….)
• Identify other stakeholders (private enterprises, NGOs, institues, etc) for cooperation on the aspects related/ Identify training resources
• Organize workshops and consultation with private and government state agencies for defining strategies to develop specific income generating activities.
• Organize training and workshop and capacity building events to support the stakeholders for supplying products responding to the market demand

Support the capitalization of project results and implementation of cross-cutting issues

• Developing capitalisation plans;
• Preparing documents such as thematic files and dossiers, brochures, etc;
• Producing a range of materials, such as documents, presentations, case studies, collective works, etc. and disseminating the results of the capitalisation process;
• Capture local indigenous knowledge and successful agro-ecological application for lessons learned and dissemination in the global population of the territory.
• Facilitate project planning, monitoring and evaluation of cross-cutting activities, especially on Gender
• Identify and prepare Institutes or other training organizations to support the planning and conduct of training and awareness activities for cross-cutting issues.
• Coordinate with Project officers and partner staff to implement the cross-cutting issue activities.

Support M&E system

• Define outcome and impact monitoring and evaluation needs and systems.
• Monthly, quarterly and annual reports for the M&E advisor and Project coordinator.
• Support Annual Work Plan for project base on Log frame
• Build up report system for all level (activity report, quartly report, Mid term review and final review)
• Review plan, reports of partners’ activity

This description is not exclusive, other tasks evolved during the course of this job will be instructed by the Project coordinator, but not over 20% of the overall working time.

Qualifications

Minimum Bachelor degree in Agriculture, Agronomy, Agribusiness, Rural development, Economicor related disciplines preferred

Experience and Skills

• Minimum five years of work experience in agriculture sector in private or international organizations (Work experience in iNGO/local NGO environment is a plus);
• Good English language communication skills (both oral and written);
• Expertise using Microsoft office, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and internet applications;
• Multi-task and prioritize effectively, attention to apply guidance from the coordination team;
• Self-directed, reliable, accountable, professional, effective coordination and delegation, good in communication;
• Honest, adapt, flexible, with high team spirit.

Contractual conditions

• Local contract for a Vietnamese national
• Fixed contract of 1 year, with possibility of renewal
• Net monthly salary according to experience and salary grid of Agrisud
• Position based in the project office in Sa Pa, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam.

Work base:

• Project office: Hoang Lien National Park, No. 89 - Group 11b - Nguyen Chi Thanh Road – Phan Si Pang Ward - Sa Pa Town - Lao Cai Province
• Field work: in 3 communes of Hoang Lien National Park, under the arrangement of IDEAS Project.

Application Information

Interested candidates can submit a full application witha cover letter and an up-to-date CV, in English, including contact details of minimum two professional referees (current and last line managers and HR department) by email to Agrisud Vietnam, at [email protected] 

Please also include details of salary expectations and a copy of latest diploma. Applications must be complete and marked "Recruitment of the Agronomist - IDEAS Project – Agrisud Vietnam" as the subject of the e-mail. Only full applications will be reviewed.

Closing date for applications: March 31st, 2023. Only shortlisted candidates for interviews will be contacted.

Timetable for interviews and selection: The interviews will be organised from the April 1st, 2023 (options of interview will be discussed with shortlisted candidates). Final selected candidates will be informed shortly after.

Start of the contract: As soon as possible

 

Organization: Agrisud
Location: Lao Cai
Application deadline: 2023-03-31
Send application to: [email protected]