Agriculture Engineer

Under this position, the Agriculture Engineer will provide technical assistance and guidance to site manager, farmers, and other local beneficiaries across the seedlings production and open field crops value chain. He/she directly coordinates with a focal point from CWB board.

The Agriculture Engineer will be primarily responsible of the following activities:

• Provide technical assistance to and the supervision of the production of vegetables seedlings (in the nursery) all year round and under different climate conditions and circumstances.

• Daily follow up on staff and daily workers in all practices applied inside the nursery to ensure good quality of seedlings supplied to farmers
• Develop a marketing strategy for the nursery and apply it with the aim to increase production and accordingly expand coverage
• In the dead season, produce medicinal and aromatic plants and market them to increase the feasibility in the nursery.
• Maintain an updated stock and develop yearly forecast to avoid shortage in supply for farmers  
• Lease with food processors to develop contract farming with farmers in the region by planting the requested crops/varieties and providing technical assistance
• Improve the capacity of farmers benefiting from the nursery by providing awareness sessions on main challenges in term of pests and cultural practices
• Develop a cluster for vegetable stakeholders in the targeted region to improve the social capital
• Conduct rapid value chain assessment for main crops in the nursery to identify gaps and seek corrective actions by developing project ideas

• Facilitate communication and coordination between site manager, farmers, and other local beneficiaries.

• Perform extensive research on best agricultural practices falling under Nursery practices scope and develop and propose strategies and tools to be adopted for the improvement of seedlings production process and staff productivity.

• Monitor, evaluate and report on the efficiency of the nursery on weekly and monthly basis

• Control the efficiency of the implemented demo plots and production units

• Provide technical specifications and participate in procurement of agricultural equipment and tools when needed.
• Work with the financial manager to develop a pricing strategy taking into consideration the volatility of the Lebanese currency

• Develop strategies to reduce cost of production and increase farmers benefit from a subsidized and reduced Seedling production cost.
• Conduct a follow up and post service visits to farmers’ field and provide the needed technical assistance based on different period of the production.
• Run a social media platform linking farmers and stakeholders and play a major role to ensure the best deals agriculture inputs and techniques and the bestselling and trading deals for the farmers.

• Relocate or face a longer commute as and when required.