Agricultural Economist NGO Jobs – Wageningen UR Uganda
Job Title: Agricultural Economist
Organisation: Wageningen UR Uganda
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: Deputy Chief of Party
About US:
Wageningen UR Uganda Ltd works on processes of innovation and change through facilitating innovation, brokering knowledge and supporting capacity development. Wageningen UR Uganda is part of Wageningen University and Research, under the unit Centre for Development Innovation. Wageningen UR Uganda is implementing a 4 year ISSD Plus project funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kampala. The programme aims to strengthen the development of a vibrant, pluralistic and market-oriented seed sector that is able to address key challenges that hamper the seed sector development such as seed quality assurance and availability of foundation seed. The project is implemented in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) for public varieties and food crops and private sector for vegetable seed.
Job Summary: The Agricultural Economist will coordinate the uptake of quality seed component of the ISSD plus project and give sound economic analysis and advise for the EGS component and QDS component of the ISSD Plus project.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Coordinate the uptake of quality seed component of the ISSD Plus project, preparing annual, quarterly and monthly workplans and progress reports;
- Collect qualitative and quantitative data on the economics of early generation seed production in public and private institutes, provide sound economic analysis on the feasibility of sustainably producing EGS on a cost-recovery bases and provide policy recommendations on social and economic costs and benefits of the proposed solutions;
- Collect qualitative and quantitative data on economics of certified seed and Quality Declared Seed production and marketing, provide sound economic analysis of the feasibility of sustainable institutionalising Quality Declared Seed system and provide sound policy recommendations based on social and economic costs and benefits of the proposed solutions.
- Develop and pilot a sound strategy for commodity value chain integration of the seed value chains and commodity value chains for the different crops and varieties promoted by Local Seed Businesses, Map crop value chain actors and available quality grading for produces and specific varieties (literature review, linking with existing projects, and traders);
- Coordinate the facilitation of pilot innovations on diversification of local seed outlets of LSBs, and seasonal small seed markets attached to village markets and evaluate the effectiveness of these tools to increase farmer uptake of quality seed;
- Coordinate the promotion of Quality Seed through National media campaigns involving radio and TV, road shows, distribution of small seed samples with Do-It-Yourself testing protocols, and a Quality seed promotion partnership fund;
- Contribute to the design of surveys and special studies across the zones and where necessary supervise field data collection;
- Collaborate with Coordinators and zonal experts in conducting spot checking and routine monitoring of quality seed promotion activities, uptake of quality seed activities and value chain integration activities;
- Engage with all key stakeholders, including public and private sector officials, donor and development partners, to strengthen and build on the several seed sector interventions in the country and maintain seed sector related networks at zonal and national level;
- Support and mobilise stakeholders to come up with economically sound innovation projects that address bottlenecks in the seed sector;
- Monitor innovation projects and document lessons learned from innovation projects, both process wise and result wise.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- Hold a MA degree in Agricultural Economics with experience in the agricultural sector
- At least five years’ relevant work experience
- Technical and proven experience in conducting agricultural economic analysis for food crops
- Technical experience in managing quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
- Excellent conceptual and analytical skills directly related to the work in the seed sector and/or with maize or legumes commodities
- Excellent writing skills and capacity to produce high quality analytical reports and policy briefs
- Computer literacy skills i.e. proficiency in word processing, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, internet use and statistical packages like SPSS and STATA
- Ability to work well in a multi-disciplinary team, excellent interpersonal skills, analytical and attentive to detail;
- Willingness to travel extensively in Uganda;
- Previous experience in the Uganda seed sector is an added benefit.
How to Apply:
All suitably and qualified and interested candidates should send their application letters and updated CVs (max. 6 pages) to hr@issduganda.org
NB: DO NOT attach certificates or academic qualification.
Deadline: 4th March 2018
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