Agribusiness Extension Worker

LESOTHO NATIONAL FARMERS UNION
P.O. Box 11911
Maseru 100
Lesotho

Agribusiness Extension Worker
Issued on: 05/06/2014
Deadline for applications: 16/06/2014
Duration: 12 months

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Under the overall supervision of the LENAFU Chief Executive and direct supervision of the Agribusiness Capacity Development Consultant the successful candidate will provide advisory services to the farmer organizations and strengthen their linkages with their apex body (LENAFU) . The incumbent will organize meetings of the member organizations to identify their day to day activities related to agribusiness development and marketing. The incumbent will liaise with FOs or groupings to identify the commodities and area of interest they are dealing with and challenges associated with the marketing of their product. Specifically the extension worker will:

1. Conduct farm levels meetings to identify the agribusiness and marketing activities of individual societies or farmer groupings.
2. Act as an overall facilitator and course coordinator of the training initiatives following the training needs assessment.
3. Collect data on commodity/value chain of their products from the various farmer organizations for analysis by the relevant project staff.
4. Identify communication needs and challenges between local FOs and their regional/district bodies for development of strategies by LENAFU to overcome.
5. Identify crops or livestock production activities of the societies and the potential for higher value addition/products.
6. Working with farmer organizations, identify their market outlets and access to sell their produce.
7. Provide information to farmer organizations on possible markets where they can plan their crop & livestock production.

Minimum requirements
At least a diploma in agriculture, agricultural marketing, or business management with a minimum of two years work experience.
Additional requirements and competencies
Computer literacy
Good interpersonal and communication skills
knowledge of extension approaches
Technical reporting and writing skills
Training skills

Applications should be hand delivered to LENAFU offices (adjacent to the Department of Livestock Service) or emailed to lenaful@gmail.com copied to FAO-LS@fao.org