Mexico - Agriculture - “Take It To The Farmer” Positions

Do you want to be a part of a movement which is revolutionizing agriculture in Mexico, improving rural livelihoods, increasing the country’s agricultural competitiveness, and providing an example for other countries to follow?

MasAgro is the Mexican government initiative to revitalize agriculture in Mexico, to make agriculture more productive, profitable, and sustainable. We believe it is one of the most important and exciting initiatives in agriculture worldwide. Take It To The Farmer (TTF) is the component of MasAgro which is responsible for working with farmers -- particularly smallholder farmers -- to increase their productivity and incomes. This is done through the application of better and more sustainable technologies, including conversation agriculture and precision agriculture. Take It To The Farmer is having immediate impact. This impact will broaden and deepen as other components of MasAgro develop new technologies, for delivery in future years. MasAgro is a collaborative effort among existing private and public institutions. It currently has signed collaboration agreements with 16 Mexican states, and formal and informal partnerships with over fifty institutions serving agriculture in Mexico.

CIMMYT, an international agricultural research institute based in Mexico, is a catalyst and organizer of MasAgro and of TTF. CIMMYT has almost fifty years of organizational existence, and is a leader in bringing improved maize and wheat varieties and agronomic practices to developing countries. CIMMYT, particularly its most famous alumnus Dr. Norman Borlaug, was at the forefront of the last Green Revolution, and is now spearheading another. There are 35 employees of CIMMYT dedicated to TTF. Due to the rapid growth of TTF, CIMMYT seeks to fill four key positions immediately, all reporting directly to the Leader of TTF, Dr. Bram Govaerts. All four positions require fluent Spanish and English:

· Deputy Leader and Manager of Institutional Relations (# 2012-20), acting as right-hand to Dr. Govaerts in all leadership responsibilities, with a particular emphasis on managing and coordinating high level relations with government and private entities; http://bit.ly/DeputyLeader

· Hub Coordinator (# 2012-17), responsible for expanding the existing TTF innovation network into other regions of Mexico, for coordinating the existing regional parts (“hubs”) of this network, and for identifying and resolving bottlenecks, and transmitting best practices, throughout the network; http://bit.ly/HubCoordinator

· Coordinator of Extension Partners (# 2012-18), responsible for working with existing agricultural extension institutions and initiatives in Mexico, including government programs and extension services organized by NGO’s and other private entities. This position ensures that TTF objectives and approaches are adopted by TTF’s extension partners, and assists with building relevant capacity as needed by these partners. http://bit.ly/CoordinatorofExtensionPartners

· Platform Coordinator, (# 2012-19) responsible for the on-farm research platforms maintained by MasAgro in each of Mexico’s agro-ecological zones, and for coordinating the on-farm research performed by MasAgro partners. http://bit.ly/PlatformCoordinator

Candidates are invited to visit websites www.cimmyt.org, and http://conservacion.cimmyt.org for more information; website http://masagro.cimmyt.org will be enabled only after July 1st.

CIMMYT is an equal-opportunity employer and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality.

Please apply online no later than May 27th, 2012.

At www.cimmyt.org, click on “About us – Job Opportunities- Position”, and to then click on the relevant job number shown above. All nationalities are encouraged to apply.

For further information, contact the Human Resources Office, jobs-cimmyt@cgiar.org. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.