Fertiliser Technical Specialist
- Career Category: Agriculture - Agronomy, Engineer - Chemical
- Schedule:Part-time, Short-term
- Salary: Negotiable
Reports to: Senior Private Sector Advisor
Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with travel to partner sites as required
Assignment period: December 2026 to 30 June 2027
Duration: Up to 55 working days, with the number of days for each assignment agreed through a work order and approved in advance
Type: Short-term consultancy
Eligibility: Cambodian citizens or residents
CAPRED therefore seeks an experienced Fertiliser Technical Specialist to provide targeted, hands-on technical support to selected private sector partners. The specialist will work alongside company teams to solve defined technical problems and build the systems and capability required to develop, test, quality-assure, register and introduce credible soil-health products to the market.
Purpose and Expected Results
The purpose of the assignment is to provide specialised, practical technical support to selected private sector partners developing soil-health products in Cambodia. This is a hands-on advisory assignment, not a research assignment. The specialist is expected to work directly with company technical and production teams, diagnose problems, recommend practical solutions, review implementation and transfer technical knowledge to partner staff.
The specific support provided to each company will be agreed through a partner work plan. Not every company will require support across all areas. Depending on each company’s needs, the specialist will help partners develop or improve product formulations; generate credible evidence through laboratory and field testing; establish practical quality-control systems; prepare the technical evidence required for registration; and strengthen the ability of company staff and dealers to advise farmers on correct product use.
Success means supported partners have resolved the key technical constraints preventing their products from progressing toward commercial launch, and have the technical evidence, systems, and internal capability needed to take the next steps without continued specialist support.
- The specialist will provide technical support to private sector partners selected by CAPRED. Support will be tailored to the technical needs and stage of development of each partner and its product.
- Before each engagement, the specialist will assess the partner’s needs with CAPRED and agree on a short work plan specifying the technical problem to be addressed, activities, expected outputs, and the number of days required. Each partner’s engagement will normally cover no more than three of Areas A to E, below.
- Product formulation and commercial feasibility: A technically sound product that addresses an identified farmer need and can be produced consistently at a commercially realistic cost.
- Assess the intended product, including target crops and users, the soil or crop nutrition problem it is intended to address, required nutrient or functional characteristics, target selling price and the partner’s production capacity.
- Develop, review or improve product formulation, including ingredients, proportions and production requirements. Products may include compost, organic fertilisers, organo-mineral fertilisers and bio-stimulants.
- Assess potential raw material sources, considering quality, specifications, cost, reliability and continuity of supply. Advise the partner on suitable local or imported sources where required.
- Estimate the raw-material cost per tonne of finished product and identify major technical or supply risks affecting commercial production.
- Update the formulation following testing where results indicate changes are required.
- Output: Product formulation and sourcing note, including formulation, specifications, potential raw-material sources and estimated raw-material cost per tonne (maximum 3 pages), updated once following trials if required.
- Product testing: trial evidence that meets GDA registration requirements
- Design field and laboratory trials to generate credible evidence of product performance and meet applicable GDA registration requirements. Define trial sites and crops, treatments and controls, application rates and timing, and the soil, crop growth and yield indicators to be measured.
- Guide partner staff in implementing the trials, including trial set-up, data collection and quality checks, and visit sites at critical stages to check implementation.
- Review and interpret results and assess whether the evidence is sufficient to support GDA registration, substantiate the product’s claims, and demonstrate its value to farmers and dealers.
- Recommend changes to the formulation, application guidance or trial design where results identify weaknesses, and determine whether further testing is required.
- Output: a trial design (maximum 5 pages) before trials starts, and results note (maximum 3 pages) when the testing is complete, and the relevant data are in.
- Quality control and production consistency: every batch meets the same tested standard
- Review the partner’s production process and identify critical points affecting product quality and consistency.
- Develop quality and testing guidelines that the partner can follow. These set out which raw materials to accept, what to check at each production stage, how to take and test samples, and the limits a batch must meet before sale.
- Where required, advise on laboratory requirements, including essential equipment, testing methods and tests that should be undertaken by an accredited external laboratory. Train the partner’s staff to follow the guidelines, keep batch records, and specify which tests must go to an accredited external laboratory.
- Output: quality guidelines with batch limits and testing protocols (maximum 5 pages), an agreed equipment list, and a record of trained staff.
- Product registration: a complete, well-prepared application ready for submission
- Assist in lab tests needed for registration: nutrient analysis from an accredited laboratory and, where the product is organic, biological, or non-standard, trials showing how well it works.
- Explain the registration rules to the partner in plain terms: which documents, tests and labels are needed, who handles each step, and how long it is likely to take.
- Review the partner’s draft application to the GDA, check that the file is complete before the partner lodges it, and draft answers with the partner to any GDA questions.
- Output: a registration checklist and plain-language summary of the rules (maximum 3 pages), and a written confirmation that the file is complete.
- Training on product use: dealer and extension teams can give correct advice to farmers
- Develop practical product-use guidance based on the formulation, trial evidence, and intended crops and users. Ensure materials are practical and reusable by partner after the assignment.
- Train the partner's extension teams and dealers on correct product application, timing, storage and handling, limitations, and common farmer questions, so that farmers get better results.
- Coach partner’s extension team to answer common farmer questions honestly, including what the product cannot do.
- Output: Reusable product-use/training materials, training records, disaggregated by sex and role.
- Advice to CAPRED: better decisions on the soil health portfolio
- Share fertiliser market trends with the CAPRED team, covering prices, supply, new products, regulation and what farmers and dealers are asking for.
- Review the technical credibility of proposed or existing partner products, including formulations, product claims, trial evidence, production processes, and quality-control arrangements.
- Where the specialist becomes aware of companies developing relevant products, provide CAPRED with basic information on the company, product, and stage of development. CAPRED alone will determine whether any engagement will proceed.
- Output: a market note and a portfolio feedback note (maximum 2 pages each) at dates set in the inception note, plus short company referrals where relevant.
- Khmer - Good is preferred
- English - Good is required
- Master's Degree in Agronomy, soil science, plant nutrition, agricultural engineering, chemistry, fertiliser technology or a related field.
- Bachelor's Degree is preferred
- Relevant experience for 10 years as a minimum
- Experience in fertiliser formulation and product development for 5 years as a minimum
- Experience designing and interpreting laboratory and field trials.
- Experience setting up quality control systems, including laboratory testing.
- Experience working directly with private companies that make or sell fertiliser or farm inputs.
- Ability to coach and train partner staff, and to write clear, practical recommendations.
- Good spoken and written English.
- Living in Cambodia, because the work requires the specialist to be on site when partners need them.
- Experience with fertiliser registration and licensing.
- Experience with organic, organo-mineral, biological, bio-stimulant or soil health products.
- Knowledge of the Cambodian or Southeast Asian fertiliser market, and contacts with companies, laboratories, research bodies and suppliers.
