Sustainable Farming Systems Specialist

Organizational Setting

The FAO Subregional Office for the Pacific Islands (SAP) was established in 1996 in Samoa to coordinate the FAO work in 13 member countries in the Pacific subregion - Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and one Associate Member, Tokelau. SAP is responsible for developing, overseeing, and implementing programmes and projects to address food security, nutrition, agriculture, and rural development priorities. It develops and maintains relations with subregion wide institutions and entities. The Subregional Office is a subsidiary of FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) in Bangkok.

This position is located in the SAP office in Apia, Samoa, and is expected to support the implementation of the project “Promoting non-conventional food production systems in the Pacific”. The project aims at promoting sustainable food production through innovative ways in Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Solomon Islands.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for the Pacific Islands in Samoa and direct supervision of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO) as well as with close collaboration and consultation with the relevant Government Ministries and national counterparts on the project islands, Sustainable Farming Systems Specialist will undertake the following activities.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Support enhanced domestic food production to reduce import dependence in the Pacific region • Promote innovative non-traditional production techniques to address the shortage of land, water and other resources • Develop stakeholder capacities • Actively engage youth and women in agriculture sector • Organise virtual and face-to-face stakeholder consultations in each of the project countries on most viable non-traditional production technologies and identify priority crops in each country • Conduct a value-chain analysis and develop SWOT analysis report by estimating the market demand, technical feasibility of the production strategies, economic viability considerations and capacity needs in each of the project countries • Develop and deliver at least one need-based capacity building workshop in each of the three countries • Develop a detailed project proposal to mobilise resources towards helping strengthen domestic food production in the three countries and to share the learnings with other countries in the Pacific region. • Contribute in resource mobilization and operationalization for the project. • Help develop detailed workplan in each of the three countries. • Identify and detail the specifications of agricultural tools and inputs needed for the project and identify potential partners for the project implementation.

Key Deliverables

• Value chain assessment and feasibility study report • Training reports from three countries • Project proposal covering three countries, and detailed country-wise work plans.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in agriculture, horticulture, food production or related fields • 3 years of relevant experience in hydroponics, protected cultivation, or similar innovative crop production practices • Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other five FAO languages Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. For PSA only one language level C is required.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus • Teamwork • Communication • Building Effective Relationships • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement