Senior Agronomist (Lead Agronomist)

• The Senior Agronomist provides strategic technical leadership to improve crop productivity and strengthen the commercial performance of the programme’s ginger and sesame value chains.
• The role is responsible for ensuring that agronomic recommendations, extension approaches, and promoted technologies consistently deliver improved yields, higher profitability, and increased adoption by farmers and agribusinesses.
• Working closely with programme leadership, State Agronomists, entrepreneurs, input companies, research institutions, and extension partners, the Senior Agronomist will establish practical agronomic standards, oversee demonstration activities, strengthen seed and input systems, and ensure technical quality across all programme locations.

Key Responsibilities
Agronomic Leadership and Productivity Improvement:

• Lead the design and implementation of agronomic strategies that improve productivity, profitability, and resilience in ginger and sesame production systems.
• Develop, standardise, and continuously improve practical Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) materials and technical guides that are simple, farmer-friendly, and suitable for extension delivery.
• Ensure promoted inputs, technologies, and production practices consistently achieve expected productivity and yield improvements under field conditions.
• Provide technical guidance to State Agronomists’ and implementation teams to ensure consistent application of programme agronomic standards across all implementation states.
• Monitor field performance and recommend practical improvements based on implementation experience and emerging production challenges.

Demonstration, Innovation and Input Systems:

• Lead the design, establishment, management, and evaluation of demonstration plots to showcase improved production practices and technologies.
• Work closely with input companies, seed suppliers, and technology providers to test, validate, and refine improved inputs under local farming conditions.
• Establish feedback mechanisms between farmers, entrepreneurs, extension teams, and private-sector partners to continuously improve input performance and farmer adoption.
• Promote climate-smart production practices, integrated soil fertility management, efficient input use, and sustainable land management that improve productivity while protecting natural resources.
• Support the introduction and scaling of improved crop varieties and productivity-enhancing technologies that respond to market demand and local production conditions.

Capacity Building and Technical Quality Assurance:

• Lead the development and delivery of practical agronomy training for entrepreneurs, producer clusters, extension agents, and field implementation teams.
• Build the technical capacity of programme partners to provide consistent, market-oriented advisory services to farmers and enterprises.
• Conduct regular technical supervision visits to assess implementation quality, identify gaps, and recommend corrective actions.
• Support the development of technical tools, training manuals, extension materials, and digital advisory content that strengthen service delivery.
• Ensure programme interventions maintain high technical quality while remaining practical, scalable, and commercially relevant.

Partnerships and Technical Advisory:

• Build strong technical partnerships with research institutions, universities, input companies, government agencies, and private-sector organisations to strengthen programme delivery.
• Analyse field performance data, adoption trends, and productivity results to guide programme decisions and continuous improvement.
• Identify emerging agronomic risks and recommend timely mitigation strategies.
• Contribute to programme reporting, technical documentation, learning products, and dissemination of best practices.
• Provide strategic technical advice to programme leadership on crop production, productivity improvement, and agronomic risk management.

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Master’s Degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Soil Science, Agricultural Extension, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in agronomy, crop production, agricultural advisory services, or large-scale agricultural development programmes.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical teams and maintaining agronomic quality across multi-location programmes.
• Strong practical knowledge of ginger and sesame production systems, climate-smart agriculture, soil fertility management, and integrated crop management.
• Experience developing Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) materials, demonstration plots, and farmer training programmes.
• Experience working with private-sector input suppliers, seed companies, and agricultural technology providers.
• Excellent analytical, communication, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement skills.