Precision Agriculture for Development - Implementation Associate

Precision Agriculture for Development, Inc. (PAD) seeks a Project Manager to support PAD research, operations, and scale-up activities by overseeing projects across geographies in India and Bangladesh, in collaboration with state governments, social enterprises, and other key partner organizations. PAD was established with a keen eye towards rigorous evaluation and constant experimentation.

PAD is a US-based non-profit organization with a mission to support smallholder farmers in developing countries by providing customized agricultural information and services that increase productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability. PAD is pioneering a model for agricultural extension: delivering farmers personalized agricultural advice via their mobile phones. PAD implements this model in collaboration with partner organizations and gathers evidence on its impact. PAD aims to improve the lives of 100 million farmers in developing countries with its services.

Roles and Responsibilities

- Acting as government liaison to coordinate with all local government officers at the district, block and panchayat levels, including but not limited to arranging and conducting training sessions, capacity building activities, scheduling meetings with VAW and implementing other field-based interventions on behalf of PAD.

- Be responsible for hiring, training and managing field associates and field staff, including monitoring and backcheck activities as well as developing field strategy plans.

- Developing strategy, managing field plan, and monitoring farmer training to be conducted by the VAWs; providing on-ground support as required, identify innovative channels to increase VAW engagement; manage relationships with all local government offices to keep them apprised of progress in field activities.

- Liasoning with field staff to execute different interventions in the field, and provide regular updates on field-based activities.

Desired Qualifications :

- M.Sc. in Agriculture or MBA Rural Management or an equivalent degree

- 1 - 7 years of experience in Agriculture Extension/ Field Implementation or similar profile

- Experience in working with the government and various external stakeholders. Also experience in managing and training large field staff

- Experience of leading or working with ICT-enabled agricultural extension systems

- Familiarity with MS office, and basic knowledge of computers and software

- Excellent data analytics skills

- Knowledge of any statistical software (SPSS / STATA) is desirable

- Knowledge of ODK is a plus

- Excellent communications, written and presentation skills

- Proficiency in Odiya language

- Commitment to agriculture based sustainable rural development and transformation

- Willingness to travel to field locations