Afghanistan AGRONOMIST

Shelter For Life’s mission is to demonstrate God’s love by providing job training, shelter, micro-loans to those afflicted by war and poverty. To assist in our mission we are seeking an agronomist to help train farmers in Afghanistan in modern farming and production techniques. To learn more – visit our website at: www.shelter.org. Duties and Responsibilities Under the supervision of the Country Director, the selected candidate will be an expert on agronomy and must have a strong knowledge of modern farming and planting methodologies. The Agronomist will have the ability to train and work the local farmers to accomplish the following: • Work with approximately 1,000 farmers in Takhar province to produce soybeans according to our donor’s requirements. Identify and recruit 4,000 farmers for 2012. Work with microcredit and engineering team to increase the capacity of the project. • Facilitate and oversee the process of vegetable and tree demonstration plots. • Provide guidance to the farmers for planting the soybean seeds. • Develop, carry out and oversee appropriate training with the farmers prior to and during the planting operation; provided needed training in the field. • Oversee the cultivation of soybeans for 2012. • Provide expertise and support to other farming projects as needed. • Identify and report successes, challenges and lessons learned.

Required Selection Criteria Competencies • Ability to transfer analytical results into simple and workable project activities • Work experience with government projects helpful • Extensive knowledge, experience and skills in agriculture programming, particularly assessment experience • Demonstrated experience in agriculture/forestry field studies/research • An understanding of rural development theory and practice • Ability to work as part of a team in a fast-paced professional environment • Excellent time management skills, with an ability to deliver high-quality outputs on time. • Willingness to travel extensively in rural areas. Academic Qualifications/Experience/Language • Advanced University degree in environment, agriculture agronomy. Additional years of relevant work experience, preferably in combination with a relevant bachelor’s degree, may substitute for the requirement for a master’s degree • The candidate must be thoroughly proficient in written and spoken English. Submission of Applications Candidates are strongly requested to carefully review the application guidelines below, incomplete documents and/or submissions not meeting the application guidelines will not be considered.

How to apply:

Please forward resume to: marguerite@shelter.org