Technology Transfer Officer

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICER – Ref No: SARAH/TTO/06/18

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.

For more information, please visit www.iita.org.

IITA is seeking a dynamic, self-motivated, innovative and results-oriented Zambian national to fill up the position of Technology Transfer Officer within the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Fall Armyworm Compact.

“Feed Africa” is a new strategy of the African Development Bank to raise agricultural productivity, mitigate risks and promote diversification and processing in 18 key agricultural commodity value chains. The Fall armyworm (FAW) is a highly destructive invasive exotic insect pest native to the Americas and was first detected in Africa in January 2016 in Nigeria. Although the pest has a very wide host range, it has high preference for cereal crops, notably maize, sorghum and millets. FAW attacks on maize have major implications on household and national food security particularly in those regions of the continent where the crop is a staple.

In order to have a coordinated continent-wide emergency response to the outbreak of FAW, a TAAT FAW Compact was created with IITA as the Lead Center but working in close collaboration with other CGIAR Centers (CIMMYT and ICRISAT), Icipe, CABI, FARA, AGRA, national agricultural research and extension programs and private sector partners across Africa. The main objective of the TAAT FAW Compact is to deploy all available control techniques in an integrated manner and rapidly bring on board new and effective management strategies as they become available for scaling up.

Technology Transfer Officer

Under the direct supervision of the Fall Army Worm Compact Leader, the Technology Transfer Officer supports the activities of the TAAT FAW Compact in Zambia.

Major duties and responsibilities

• Communicate strategies for FAW management to the Zambian national program and other local delivery actors using various channels of national communication campaigns.
• Assist in setting up demonstration plots of proven/promising FAW management technologies at selected primary focus farms prior to their roll out across the country.
• In collaboration with national agricultural research and extension systems in Zambia, facilitate the strengthening of community-based participatory learning and extension structures including Farmer Field Schools, Lead Farmer programs and Plant Health Clinics.
• Facilitate the training of extension workers, agrodealers and farmers in the management of conventional pesticides and biorationals meant for FAW control, and calibration of spray equipment.
• Assist in the preparation and dissemination of FAW monitoring/surveillance and scouting tools at the community and farmer levels.
• Participate in the training of national M&E enumerators as well as the collection of FAW Compact M&E data.
• Document farmers’ initiatives and other evident natural pest regulatory processes for inclusion into the R4D agenda for FAW.
• Assist the FAW Compact Leader in the monitoring of progress made towards the set targets and goals.
• Assist in the uploading of data to the TAAT Information Portal and its analysis.
• Assist in report preparation and capturing of success stories for wider scale dissemination in the FAW program.
• Perform any other similar duties as may be assigned by the Program Management and/or Institutional Management office to meet the objectives of the FAW Compact.

Educational Qualification and Experience

• The candidate should have a post graduate degree in entomology, agricultural extension, agronomy, or agricultural sciences.
• Should have at least 5 years of professional work experience in agricultural technology transfer, integrated pest management or a closely related role. Experience in FAW-related issues since the advent of the pest in Africa would be a huge advantage.

Core Competencies

• Experience in establishing necessary contacts and partnerships with public and private institutions, strategic stakeholders and local delivery actors.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and fluent in one or more of Zambia’s national languages.
• Demonstrated ability to write, publish, and disseminate technical reports, success stories, and promotional materials.
• Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and multi-cultural environment.

Duty Station: Lusaka, Zambia

General information: The contract will be for an initial period of three years. Renewal is dependent on performance and availability of funds. IITA offers an attractive remuneration package and support for continuous professional development.

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