Field Assistant

Project Overview and Role

The Government of Indonesia partners with the Government of Australia on an initiative to boost smallholder farmers incomes: The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Rural Economic Development (AIP-Rural). AIP-Rural is a suite of programs that improves smallholder farmers’ access to new markets, better inputs, knowhow, technology, irrigation, and small loans. Its goal is to achieve a sustainable 30% increase in the net incomes of 1,000,000 male and female smallholder farmers in Eastern Indonesia by 2022.. AIP-Rural operates in East Java, West and East of Nusa Tenggara, Papua and West Papua.

Further details on the four projects can be found in the Annex and on AIP-Rural website:

https://aip-rural.or.id/en.

Currently, peanut and mung bean sub-sectors is expanding the interventions on quality seed provision to five districts in Timor Island, which are Kupang, Timor Tengah Selatan, Belu, Malaka, and Timor Tengah Utara.  In these interventions, PRISMA is working with a total of six mung bean and peanut nurseries, with similar production and promotional timeline. On top of that, there is an urgency to have an individual with local context knowledge to assist the implementation as well as communication with local partners.

AIP-Rural’s four programs are:

Promoting Rural Income through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA)

A program dedicated to supporting the Government of Indonesia’s mid-term development strategy to eradicate rural poverty. The program aims to improve agriculture competitiveness – productivity, profit, access to new or better markets, and innovation – for rural farmers. PRISMA aims to achieve a 30% increase in the net incomes of 300,000 male and female smallholder farmers in Eastern Indonesia by the program’s completion.

Tertiary Irrigation Technical Assistance (TIRTA)

TIRTA is a program that aims to improve smallholder farmers’ access to irrigation. It supports the creation of tertiary irrigation schemes that are managed by HIPPA (water user associations) and local investors (lead farmers or local entrepreneurs). The program’s goal is to increase the net income of 10,000 farmers by 60% through improvements to the efficiency, technical and economic viability of at least 35 tertiary irrigation projects.

Strengthening Agriculture Finance in Rural Areas (SAFIRA)

This is a program that improves smallholder farmers access to essential financial services, such as business and investment capital loans. The program facilitates a financial service model that can answer to farmers specific needs through a partnership between formal and informal financial institutions in rural areas. The program will also expand smallholder farmers’ financial access through key market stakeholders (including but not limited to input retailers, collectors, traders and manufacturing companies) in the value chain.

Applied Research and Innovation System in Agriculture (ARISA)

ARISA is a partnership between Indonesia’s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and Australia’s science and technology think tank, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), that aims to disseminate applied and adaptive research in agriculture that will have practical and significant impacts on the incomes of farmers. Its goal is to support innovations that can increase the incomes of 10,000 small farmers in Eastern Indonesia by the end of 2018.

Responsibilities

In close collaboration with Peanut and Mung Bean Task Leader, the Field Assistant is expected to undertake the following tasks:

Provide assistance to project team in implementation and monitoring of key activities

•    Ensuring that activities are implemented in accordance to timeline, particularly all the critical milestones, such as production and key promotional activities, by closely monitoring the     partners.

•      In collaboration with partners, planning key promotional activities, and providing inputs on ways to reach more farmers.

Conduct field research and market investigation

•      Gather data and information on farmers’ behavior and the sub-sector market

•      Identifying potential retailers and provide the information to partners

•      Gather public data and information from the public sector

•      Assessing supporting market actors and their incentives, and provide information on their interlinkages to the project team

Requirements

Essential skills and experience:

•      Appropriate academic qualifications, minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in agriculture or relevant study field with a minimum of 3 years of experience  

•      Home based in Timor, NTT

•      Strong on analytical skill, attention to detail and business acumen

•      Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia with a basic knowledge of English

•      Demonstrated ability to provide high quality reports and other output

•      Experience in food crop sector and value chain is an advantage

•      Strong local knowledge with established networks in the target regions either directly or via local collaborating partners

Application

Please apply via this link: Field Assistant - Timor

The post is open for Indonesian national only.  Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Applications close on 11^th April 2018

Notes:

o    Application addressing Key Selection Criteria to be no more than two (2) A4 pages

o    Curriculum Vitae to be no more than Seven (7) A4 pages. Please include two (2) referees with your CV.