One Acre Fund is a nonprofit organization that supplies smallholder farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services to reduce hunger and poverty.
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Your focus will be to develop programs and training content to maximize adoption of integrated pest management amongst smallholder farmers. You'll report to the Global Director of R&D, and work within the Global Impact team. This team combines agronomy, data science, qualitative research and SBC & social marketing skillsets to develop adoptable recommendations, and support country programs to effectively communicate and train farmers on them for maximum uptake.
You will develop evidence-based IPM extension, promoting approaches that are proven to reduce pest pressure and increase yields, through training and extension approaches that are informed by instructional design principles, adult learning and SBC theories. You will develop and test training, extension and decision-support tools using HCD methodology, then scale these and validate impact through measured improvements in farmer knowledge, attitude and adoption.
Responsibilities:
Research
Oversight over surveys to characterize farmers' pest challenges and adoption of IPM practices
Literature reviews, rapid evidence assessments, expert consultation etc. to identify impactful pest prevention and control technologies.
There may also be opportunities to work on innovation projects around pest diagnostics, threat forecasting and surveillance, and on-farm experimentation to evaluate novel pest management technologies
Extension
Develop IPM recommendations. Translate research-based IPM approaches and into simplified recommendations and protocols that empower smallholder farmers with limited resources to meaningfully reduce pest pressure and increase yields.
Test and improve scalable IPM training and decision-support tools through design workshops and piloting with extension workers and farmers
Strategy
Develop IPM extension / communications strategies that integrate print, audio, digital and in-person training and communication tools to maximize reach and cost-effectiveness.
Define indicators to monitor and evaluate the scale and quality of IPM strategy implementation (e.g. in terms of farmer uptake of IPM, pesticide usage), and generate recommendations for improvement.
Qualifications
3-5+ years' experience in agriculture training and extension service design and implementation, ideally working with farmers with low and mixed literacy and digital access.
Strong technical knowledge agronomy and IPM, ideally for IPM for maize, potato, legumes in particular
Research skills and experience with literature reviews, survey design and analysis. Experience managing on-farm trials a plus.
Excellent written and verbal communication, with a range of audiences - from non-technical colleagues to external experts. Ability to understand complex technical concepts and translate into concise, accessible language
Strong project management skills
Experience driving projects towards results, working within a matrix management model.
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