Agribusiness Specialist

Agribusiness Specialist Volunteers support Ugandan households in achieving economic security and improved food and nutrition security. Volunteers work with community members to build the capacity of women, youth, and farmers to generate income through agricultural activities, improve money management practices, develop their entrepreneurial potential, and adopt more nutritious diets. Agribusiness Specialists may also work with Small and Medium Business Enterprises and Farmers’ Cooperative to support agribusiness and farm management, market linkages, value addition and nutrition support. Volunteers work in rural and semi-urban communities that have a high need for food security and economic development opportunities, many of which are not reached by other organizations. Volunteers also work with schools, health centers and other stakeholders to promote household nutrition.

Requirements

• Competitive candidates will have one or more of the following criteria:
  
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Economics or a degree combining agriculture and management, including agribusiness, agricultural management, farm management.
  
• At least 3 years of experience in farm management and/or agribusiness.
  
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any business or economics discipline with 1 year experience in farming or agribusiness.
  

• Training farmers, women and youth on farm management practices and improved crop production to increase income (Agriculture as a Business).
  
• Training community groups on financial literacy which includes budgeting, bookkeeping, saving and financial goal setting.
  
• Training community groups, farmers cooperatives and owners of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) on business development, business planning and management, marketing, value addition, pricing and branding.
  
• Support the formation and strengthening of village savings and loan associations (VSLAs).
  
• Advise farmers on post-harvest handling and value addition to reduce waste and increase profitability of agriculture-based products.
  
• Promote home gardening and nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices among households.
  
• Promote nutrition-sensitive food processing and preservation techniques that enhance the shelf life, nutritional value, and safety of perishable foods.
  
• Encourage the production and consumption of nutritious food.
  
• Create awareness and train community members on the effects of climate change and mitigation measures to create climate resilient and food secure communities.
  
• Volunteers work with an array of groups and host organizations, including farmers, women and youth groups, and agricultural cooperatives as well as non-governmental, community-based, and faith-based organizations. Each host organization and community are unique in their needs, opportunities, and challenges.
  
• Volunteers use flexibility, patience, humility, and good humor to successfully serve their communities. Volunteers do not serve in communities to “fix” things. Rather, you will be most successful when you work with your community and host organization to collaboratively and creatively find ways to address issues using local resources.
  
• Peace Corps Uganda promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. Volunteers receive training on gender challenges and can implement gender-related activities that are contextually appropriate. During service, Volunteers look for ways to work with community members to promote gender-equitable norms and increase girls’ sense of agency. As part of their work, Volunteers will also report on these efforts and their impact. Volunteers invited to this project are expected to work as professionals and will be periodically evaluated on their work performance.
  

Climate change activities

• As the impacts of climate change become ever more evident, the social, economic, and environmental context within which smallholder farmers seek to maintain and improve their livelihood and support their families will continue to change. This will add significantly to the challenges of smallholder farming, particularly for the most disadvantaged communities. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will be trained to use a participatory approach and tools to identify locally determined priorities and conditions, including those related to the impacts of climate change. As an Agriculture Volunteer, you will be trained to use this local knowledge in engaging smallholder farmers in a climate-smart approach that:
  
• promotes the adoption of improved, appropriate, and adaptive agricultural practices and technologies that sustainably increase productivity;
  
• builds and strengthens household resilience by integrating and diversifying existing and new agriculture-related income-generating opportunities; and
  
• reduces greenhouse gas emissions attributable to ineffective and carbon intensive farming practices and encourages adoption of agricultural practices and activities that sequester carbon.