Poultry Value Chain Facilitator
Position Circumstances
- Career Category: Agriculture, Agriculture - Animal Science
- Schedule:Full-time
- Salary: $450 - $550
Directly report to: Executive Director
Function:
The Poultry and agri-enterprise Value Chain is responsible for supporting the backyard chicken producers/smallholder farmers or enterprises to adapt technical skills and technology to increase chicken production including facilitating development of poultry enterprises, business and production plans, providing training on animal wellbeing management, coaching supports and monitoring to ensure success and profitability of the enterprises. This position provides capacity building in animal well-being technology to Community Agro-vet Entrepreneurs (CAVEs) so that they can transfer the skills and technology to the smallholder farmers effectively.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Scope of work:
- Technical Capacity building and technology adaptation
- Develop and update training manual and materials in poultry or animal wellbeing.
- Facilitate the selection of appropriate backyard chicken breeding and fattening producers for scaling up MSME-size enterprises.
- Provide training and coaching supports to poultry producers and ensure the poultry prototypes/models, climate smart animal production and technology for improving the poultry farms are adapted by poultry producers.
- Work with Heifer’s poultry value chain manager in research development to improve poultry practices and technology.
- Coordinate for ensuring CAVEs is sufficiently trained to provide training and veterinary services to poultry producers.
- Facilitate the adoption of improved forage and fodder production through nursery centers or other innovative methods.
- Ensure the developed system to monitor the performance of animals and strive for optimum production, ensuring animal well-being are properly recorded by poultry producers.
- Appropriately respond to issues such as unusual animal mortality, infertility, unidentified diseases, and disease outbreaks in projects.
- Oversee the quality of veterinary equipment, vaccines, medicine, etc.
- Build relationship and coordination with appropriate government institutions and the private sector for veterinary services and inputs.
- Document and disseminate best practices and lessons learned in relation to animal well-being implementation.
- Ensure adequate records of agriculture productions, sales and data related to smallholder farmers
- Technical support in Agribusiness and Value Chain Development
- Participate with Heifer’s poultry value chain Manager in value chain studies and exploring agribusiness opportunities along the value chain of the selected commodities.
- Facilitate for developing and strengthening implementation of business plans for backyard chicken enterprises or smallholder farmers.
- Provide support to smallholder farmers and CAVEs to create and run the agribusiness and innovative agri-enterprises in line with new market demand.
- Facilitate with ACs, CAVEs and producers to ensure quality of delivering eggs to the hatchery enterprise, chicks to fattening producers and ready birds to the processing plant.
- If necessary, provide technical advice on improving the implementation of hatchery enterprises and processing plant production lines.
- Create learning and reflection platforms to review the progress and set strategy for improving the technical capacity of ACs, smallholder farmers and CAVEs.
- Facilitate Catalytic Leverage Fund mobilization, investment, documentation, and reporting.
- Build and maintain successful relationships with private sectors, relevant local Government structures and partners
- Assist in facilitating for provincial/district level multi-stakeholder consultation meetings, workshops and business-to-business meetings for better market linkages, technical assistance, and financial accessibility.
- Project management, reporting and data management
- Plan and implement the project work plan and ensure the project activities are on track according to project work plan and result framework.
- Seek for innovative for project implementation and create and pilot new initiatives of projects.
- Prepare project monthly, quarterly, semester, and annual report including project stories/success stories and submit to Executive Director.
- Education and/ or Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in animal/veterinary science/degree of agribusiness and value chain development is an advantage
- At least 3-year in livestock or poultry sector or agriculture value/Agro-enterprise development
- Most Critical Proficiencies:
- Agriculture Cooperative Development
- English language – fairly spoken and written
- Working knowledge on sustainable livelihoods, value chain and market development
- Knowledge of community organizations – SHGs, farmer producer groups etc.
- Effective Communication ability with various stakeholders
- MS Offices Literature and internet browser
- Have an interest in animal/agriculture/community development
Business Development, Market and Access to Finance Facilitator
Position Circumstances
- Career Category: Business Administration, Agriculture, Rural development
- Schedule:Full-time
- Salary: $500 - $600
Directly report to: Executive Director
Function:
The position is responsible for coordinating and supporting the ACs and smallholder farmers/agri-enterprises increase access to market for agri-products of Agriculture Cooperatives (ACs) and smallholder farmers and increase access to finance or capital investment from Banks, MFIs and private sectors for smallholder farmers and ACs to upscale the backyard chicken production farms or enterprises and ACs owned agribusiness. This position also leads in implementing and strengthening 4Ps model by exploring and collaborating with different PPPs to strengthen the forward and backward linkages in both product markets and input/service market at local levels as well as taking the lead on developing the business plans for ACs and providing coaching support to run the profitable agribusiness.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Scope of work:
- Market and distribution development
- Identify and map the potential markets, buyers including restaurants, hotels. Wholesalers, and retailers in local markets, provincial and national levels.
- Facilitate for making the long-term agreement or contract farming between ACs, smallholder farmers and buyers.
- Support poultry processing plant/enterprise to develop market linkages such as local restaurants, hotels, wholesalers, retailers, and franchise for processed backyard chicken meat.
- Participate in the development of a marketing and private/public sector engagement strategy and actions for the project.
- Timely delivery of milestones and deliverables relating to Market Development work plan and activities.
- Map and develop the value chain including main actors, flow of products, infrastructure facilities, financial institutions, and all supporting organizations.
- Facilitate ACs to develop business plans and provide coaching support to ensure profitable agribusiness.
- Conduct value chain assessment to identify gaps along the chain and develop recommendations on how to improve the selected value chains and maximize impact.
- Conduct market and market segmentation studies for the different value chain enterprises.
- Provide technical support for the formation of producer groups/cooperatives and other associations or enterprise groups along the key value chains.
- Develop and deliver capacity development activities in the areas of agribusiness, value chain and marketing development to ACs.
- Build and maintain successful relationships with relevant customers, partners, relevant Government departments and private sectors.
- Access to Finance
- Identify and analyse financial gaps among value chain actors (producers, ACs, etc.).
- Identify appropriate finance service providers and opportunities and link them with farmers, ACs, MSMEs and value chain actors.
- Engage the financial institutes such as banks and MFIs to provide loan or capital investment to ACs, MSME and smallholder farmers.
- Support ACs, producers and Value Chain (VC) Actors to develop bankable business plans and connect with relevant financial and non-financial service providers.
- Facilitate for providing financial literacy training or financial discipline education to smallholder farmers, ACs, women and youth entrepreneurs
- Develop the effective loan utilization mechanism
- Explore partnership with relevant partners including NGOs, private sectors, and Government departments/projects to leverage resource and funds for scaling up AC’s agribusiness and smallholder farmers.
- Build collaboration with local authority and interest institutions and private sector to support the project implementation and ACs.
- Assist in facilitating for provincial/district level multi-stakeholder consultation meetings, workshops and business-to-business meetings for better market linkages, technical assistance, and financial accessibility.
- Monitor and provide coaching support on effective loan utilization and record all loan outstanding of ACs and smallholder farmers.
- Agriculture Cooperative Development
- Ensure the effective implementation of trainings at the community (SHGs and ACs) and smallholder farmers to strengthen Heifer’s social capital approaches.
- Provide capacity building and Training of Trainers (ToT) on social capital to SHG and AC leaders/committees.
- Provide on-going field support and coaching to ACs to ensure trainings on Heifer Cornerstones and PSRP are efficiently and effectively delivered on a regular basis to SHG and AC members.
- Lead in formulating the AC’s long-term strategy to increase membership, savings and share capital for scaling up agribusiness.
- Lead in strengthening adaptation of various policies, procedures, and systems of the ACs.
- Support ACs to ensure the AC owned business hubs are appropriately linked to the markets (including processing plants/abattoir) and functioning sustainably.
- Support Catalytic Leverage Funds mobilization and investment for sustainable growth of AC agri-enterprises.
- Ensure ACs produce accounting closing, financial reports and AC’s database on time and transparency.
- Represent the organization in the Agriculture Cooperative development sector.
- Project management, reporting and data management
- Plan and implement the project work plan and ensure the project activities are on track according to project work plan and result framework.
- Seek for innovative for project implementation and create and pilot new initiatives of projects.
- Prepare project monthly, quarterly, semester, and annual report including project stories/success stories and submit to Executive Director.
- Education and/ or Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Management or Agriculture Economics or Rural Development
- At least 3-year in agribusiness management/agriculture value chain development or rural financial/credit
- Marketing and community mobilization and/or partnership management
- Leading/facilitating development of business plans
- Most Critical Proficiencies:
- Agriculture Cooperative Development
- English language – fairly spoken and written
- Working knowledge on sustainable livelihoods, value chain and market development
- Knowledge of community organizations – SHGs, farmer producer groups etc.
- Effective Communication ability with various stakeholders
- MS Offices Literature and internet browser
- Have an interest in animal/agriculture/community development
