Horticulture Expert

İşin təsviri

Horticulture Expert

Main field of expertise:

Horticulture value chain management

Who we are:

The EU-financed Project of technical Assistance for the Support to Rural and Regional Development (SRRD) will contribute to the diversification of the economy in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The project team consisting of 6 long-term experts and several short-term specialists will support the Ministry of Economy through capacity building in preparing regional development plans, which are focussed on the support of economic development through the improvement of selected agri-food value chains. The project will be implemented in Baku and three rayons: Goychay (for persimmon), Shamakhi (for grapes and wine) and Khachmaz f(or tomato) and other crops. In addition to Regional Development Plans investment proposals for infrastructure measures and Pre-Feasibility Studies for the selected value chains (VC) will be prepared.
The project is implemented by an European consortium of consulting companies.

Qualifications and skills required:

Minimum:
• At least University degree in Agriculture or Horticulture, or equivalent professional experience for at least 5 years in the field of horticultural production in Azerbaijan;
• Fluency in oral and written English (at least level 2 on a scale of 1 [excellent] to 5 [basic]);
• Fluency in Azerbaijani language.

Preferred requirements:

• Specialisation in fruit and vegetables is an advantage.

Specific professional experience:

Minimum:
• At least one project record in advising fruit and vegetables producers or in F&V production management;

Preferred requirements:

• Familiarity with the fruit and vegetables market in Azerbaijan.

Tasks to be contributed to:

Under the overall co-ordination of the Project Team Leader, the Non-Key Horticultural Long-term Expert (female/male) shall co-operate with the Senior Horticultural Specialist (KE2) and the Senior Rural and Regional Development Planning Expert (KE3) to implement the following activities foreseen by the Project TORs.

• Conduct training needs analysis in relation to the capacities of agricultural producers;
• Organize and deliver training, training-seminars on specialization, value chain development and support in other relevant activities as per TNA report for staff of beneficiaries and stakeholders;
• Support in organization of study visits (one study visit on tomato VC, one study visit on grape VC, one study visit on persimmon VC) for selected stakeholders to familiarise them directly with the functioning of tomato, grape, persimmon, and fruit and vegetables value chains and with the operations of the public bodies supporting their development, including business incubators and agro-industrial districts;
• Review business environment including legislative framework on value chain development and specialization;
• Analyse institutional mechanisms/infrastructure for public service delivery (national, regional/rayon, local) on value chain development and specialization.
• Appraisal of present situation at a production level (mapping of main areas cultivated with tomatoes, grapes and persimmon in the selected regions, growing methods, plant protection treatments, inputs supply, market outlets, prices, gross margins) and at a post-harvest level (storage, processing, packaging, supply of equipment and intermediate goods, transport, marketing; role and functioning of Logistic Centres in the selected regions; description of constraints);
• Market perspectives assessment and proposals for tomatoes and derived products, and for other crops likely to be produced in rotation with tomatoes in Khachmaz rayon, table grapes and wine in Shamakhi rayon, persimmon in Goychay rayon; competitiveness appraisal in relation to target markets;
• Stakeholders' analysis and organisational proposals for im¬provements of the agriculture support facilities in selected regions;
• Based on the selected VCs, designing arrangements for improvement of government services, technical advice requirements, investments and financing needs and organisational aspects, and development of associated ventures by small farmers, especially marketing and processing cooperatives;
• Support in organization and design of Methodological Guidelines on how to design regional oriented territorial developments plans on specialization based on analysis and gained experience;
• Work on projects database and project generation for potential public agro support infrastructure projects;
• Elaborate three pre-feasibility studies for the improvement of agro-food value chains for the products tomato, grapes, grape juice and wine and persimmon;
• Analyse the current availability of credit and financing, for the types of activities and investments identified in the value chains development plans;
• Based on the appraisal and gaps identification a proposal will be developed to improve the financing of the various segments of a value chains, possibly with a holistic approach encompassing the functions mentioned in the Project Result

Period of fee-based contract: 

30 months (April 2017 – September2019), 22 working days /month up to 540 working day.
Place of work / duty station:
Khachmaz or Shimakhi with travel to the other, Goychay and Baku

Applications:

Please send us a motivation letter ( up to 3 pages) and your Curriculum Vitae by e-mail to the Team Leader, Mr. Stefan Rosenow ( [email protected] )until March 29, 2017, Baku time.

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