PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

The purpose of the Agronomist – Resilience Design position is to provide technical guidance for the planning, implementation, supervision, and monitoring of agricultural, fodder production, kitchen garden, nursery, and demonstration plot activities in Somalia’s riverine and rainfed farming areas. The position will support communities to adopt climate-smart and regenerative agronomic practices that improve productivity, soil health, water-use efficiency, flood and drought preparedness, household nutrition, and resilience to climate-related shocks. The Agronomist will also contribute to DRR, CMDRR, and VSLA-linked resilience activities by ensuring that agricultural interventions are risk-informed, technically sound, context appropriate, environmentally responsible, inclusive, and aligned with ADRO policies, donor requirements, cluster standards, and community priorities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Technical Design and Climate-Smart Agricultural Programming

·         Lead the technical design and implementation of context-specific, climate-resilient agricultural interventions, including agroecology, permagardening, conservation agriculture, regenerative farming, and nutrition-sensitive production models.

·         Guide the selection, testing, and promotion of drought-tolerant, early-maturing, flood-tolerant, locally acceptable, marketable, and high-nutrition crop and fodder varieties suitable for Somalia’s riverine and rainfed farming conditions.

·         Develop practical agronomic recommendations, technical specifications, seasonal crop calendars, and input packages for seeds, tools, fertilizers, irrigation materials, nursery supplies, and fodder production.

·         Integrate water harvesting, soil moisture retention, small-scale irrigation, flood mitigation, drainage improvement, erosion control, and sustainable land management measures into riverine and rainfed community farming systems in coordination with WASH, DRR, and technical teams.

·         Provide technical justification and evidence for proposed agricultural approaches, adaptations, and innovations for project teams, donors, authorities, and coordination platforms.

·         Ensure agricultural designs are informed by local hazard profiles, seasonal calendars, early warning information, CMDRR action plans, and community priorities for reducing drought, flood, pest, and market-related risks.

2. Capacity Building, Extension Support and Community Engagement

·         Establish, support, and monitor Farmer Field Schools (FFS), Pastoral Field Schools (PFS), demonstration plots, and farmer learning groups as practical platforms for community-based learning and adoption of improved practices.

·         Train smallholder farmers, agropastoralists, farmer groups, project management committees, community facilitators, and local extension actors on good agronomic practices, integrated pest management, sustainable land management, post-harvest handling, and safe input use.

·         Facilitate participatory community planning to ensure agricultural interventions respond to local ecological conditions, seasonal calendars, traditional knowledge, gender considerations, and community priorities.

·         Promote inclusive participation of women, youth, displaced households, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups in agriculture and resilience activities.

·         Support communities to link Farmer Field Schools, farmer groups, and producer groups with CMDRR committees and VSLAs so that agricultural learning, disaster preparedness, savings, and livelihood recovery planning reinforce each other.

3. Field Implementation, Agronomic Supervision and Demonstration Plots

·         Provide day-to-day technical supervision for crop, fodder, kitchen garden, nursery, and demonstration plot activities across assigned project locations.

·         Conduct field assessments to identify suitable land, riverine irrigation opportunities, rainfed production potential, crop choices, drainage needs, flood exposure, soil constraints, pest and disease risks, and seasonal production opportunities.

·         Prepare and update seasonal crop calendars, input distribution plans, planting schedules, field visit plans, and activity workplans aligned with Gu and Deyr rainfall patterns, river  water availability, flood-risk periods, and local livelihood priorities.

·         Provide hands-on guidance to farmers on land preparation, seed selection, spacing, planting, thinning, weeding, mulching, composting, crop rotation, harvesting, and post-harvest handling.

·         Establish and supervise demonstration plots that compare improved practices with traditional methods, document performance, and generate lessons for scale-up.

4. Soil Health,  Water Management and Environmental Stewardship

·         Promote soil fertility improvement through composting, manure management, organic matter restoration, cover cropping, crop residues, crop rotation, and appropriate soil amendments.

·         Support practical soil and water conservation measures such as contour bunds, zai pits, half-moons, trenches, mulching, windbreaks, runoff harvesting, and erosion control where suitable.

·         Provide technical guidance on efficient irrigation and water management practices, including water scheduling, canal or pipe management, drip or bucket irrigation, water storage, drainage, and safe water use for crop production in riverine and rainfed areas.