Technology Transfer Officer at IITA

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 http://www.iita.org/.

“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 CG-centers, Self-Regulatory Organisations, 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 FAW management technologies in an integrated manner and rapidly bring on board new and effective management technologies as they become available for scaling up.
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.

Technology Transfer Officer- Ref No: SARAH/TTO/06/19

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 the development of FAW training and awareness materials and their dissemination to public and private sector national partners, NGOs and farmers.
• In collaboration with national agricultural research and extension systems in Zambia, facilitate the strengthening of FAW community-based participatory learning and extension structures including Farmer Field Schools, Lead Farmer programs and Plant Health Clinics.
• Facilitate the training of national partners and farmers on the identification of FAW, FAW field assessments and scouting, and responsible use of plant protection products.
• Be responsible for setting up and maintaining demonstration plots of proven/promising FAW management technologies and organising Field Days to showcase performance of such technologies.
• Participate in out-scaling and deployment of proven FAW management technologies and be responsible for follow-ups to assess on-farm performance of such technologies.
• Assist in the writing of technical reports and capturing of success stories for wider scale dissemination in the FAW program.
• Assist in the assessment of the environmental and social impact of some of the deployed FAW management technologies.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the FAW Compact so as to assess progress made towards set targets and goals.
• Document farmers’ initiatives in managing FAW and other evident natural pest regulatory processes for inclusion into the R4D agenda for FAW.
• Assist in the uploading of data to the TAAT Information Portal and its analysis.
• 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 Qualifications and Experience

The candidate should have a minimum of a BSc degree in Agriculture, Biological Sciences or related discipline. Should have at least 4 years of professional work experience in agricultural technology transfer, integrated pest management or a closely related role.

Core Competencies

• Experience in establishing necessary contacts and partnerships with public and private institutions, strategic stakeholders and local delivery actors.
• Experience of working with FAW and its management technologies.
• 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 and disseminate technical reports, success stories, and promotional materials.
• Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and multi-cultural environment.

Duty station: Zambia, Lusaka

General information: The contract will be for an initial period of three years. Renewal is dependent on performance and availability of funds.

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