Position: Project Manager- Agriculture, Livelihoods- Champion Farmer Program, Full time
Location: SELCO Foundation, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Reports to: Program Manager
Starting date: Immediate

SELCO Foundation seeks to inspire and implement socially, financially and environmentally inclusive solutions by improving access to sustainable energy. SELCO Foundation’s key objectives are systematically identify diverse needs of the poor, understand and define the role of sustainable development, poverty alleviation and decentralized energy, create and deploy innovative solutions that positively impact well-being, health, education and livelihoods towards the alleviation of poverty and foster the development of enabling conditions or an ecosystem through holistic thought processes in technology, finance, entrepreneurship and policy.

As one of the priority development verticals, we are working to develop sustainable energy driven solutions for Agriculture. Under the Agricultural vertical we have been working on specific value chains such as millets, rice, spice, tomato, potato and with agri cooling as a value chain cutting across all horticulture produce. SELCO seeks to develop sustainable energy solutions across agri commodity value chains in order to improve, diversifying farm incomes and reducing drudgery across agri processes and activities. Specifically, we are looking at technologies that bring about value among small marginal farmers and entrepreneurs, FPOs, FPC's, SHG and other stakeholders.

You can find more information on this program on our Program Website.You can find more information about the SELCO Foundation on our Organization Website.

About the Program

This program is aimed at the Identification of champion farmers to implement intervention of need- based DRE solutions at the champion site for learning and lead generation & to develop case studies on climate-friendly practices for cross learning. There is a knowledge gap across new and innovative farming solutions, lack of recognition and documentation of climate friendly innovative practices by champion farmers; which this project aims to cover.

The Champion Farmer Program is an effort to create a repository of farmers who have emerged resilient against all odds showcasing sustainable and resilient ecosystems in agriculture and allied sectors. The Champion farmers program is piloted across three districts of Karnataka, namely Haveri, Chitradurga and Devangere which range from moderate to high in climate vulnerability. The Agriculture Department, Government of Karnataka has been integral to this program, supporting the selection of farmers and selection of geographies for pitching the project.

The theory of change behind this initiative is reciprocal: Documenting the sustainable practice that progressive farmers are doing as well as plugging into the gaps where technology and sustainable energy can play a crucial role to facilitate systemic change in life and livelihood. Champion farmers have a major role in the country’s food security and in meeting SDGs with their integrated and multi-dimensional approach to sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Champion farmer program aims:

  • To capture knowledge on grassroots practices and integrated farming techniques
  • To transfer learnings across geographies with similar agro-climatic conditions by benchmarking best practices and processes from Champion farmers to build the knowledge and solutions within the sector.
  • To complement existing practices with solar energy technologies to aid livelihood and well-being

Approach and Strategy of the Program

  • Identification of climate resilient DRE innovation by farmers across varied geographies (supported by a database of 200 farmers provided by KVK and Dept. of Agriculture) by carrying out focused group discussions, local lead generation, demonstrations and continued fortnightly follow ups with descriptive documentation of need-based climate resilient agri-tech practices and interventions alongside stakeholders and champion farmers.
  • Shortlisting, collection and documentation champion farmers to generate a matrix of actionable climate friendly insights and practices for knowledge dissemination and technology diffusion to facilitate an ecosystem of cross learning through shared champion farmer experiences for adoption across geographies
  • Creating a road map with the actionable insights to carry out implementation to integrate DRE with the selected champion farmers based on need assessment analysis and research. End to end management of champion farmer implementations.

Key Responsibilities

  • To support the agriculture team for research, identification, innovation (both tech and financial), implementation for Decentralized Renewable Energy based technologies for agriculture, specific to commodities such as Rice & millets.
  • Develop and maintain positive relationships with relevant local stakeholders ( NGO partners, Govt. Institutes etc.,) related to each commodity.
  • To map and profile the technology providers/ manufacturers for the identified technology nodal points and coordinate for smooth implementation of projects.
  • To visit sites/ partner organizations to identify different end user/ commodity typologies to develop prototype and test new technologies relevant to the value chains. And, to develop different business & financial models for these typologies.
  • To support the agriculture team in developing different technologies, models and packages of solutions for farmers, traders, entrepreneurs etc.
  • To coordinate with the other geography teams of SELCO and support them in developing and implementing programs to create cross learning platforms for the specified value chain.
  • To coordinate and help in collecting data and sharing it with knowledge team to develop the knowledge deliverables (case studies, presentations, report, etc)
  • Conduct site visits and prepare monthly case studies with pre and post implementation learnings, financial profitability for all the implementations.
  • Support the team in conducting the training and capacity building requirements from the implementations and create training modules with relevant stakeholders.
  • To coordinate with end users for maintenance and troubleshooting support for implementations at each site by coordinating with the technology providers to resolve the same.
  • Share data, caselets, learnings & newly identified typologies with the geography teams and also with the partners.
  • Support the team in bringing out the newsletters including case studies, learnings, new typologies etc which will be shared with the partners, geographies monthly.
  • Coordinate with the outreach team for sharing the learnings through various social media channels.

Key requirements

  • 3 to 5 years of relevant work experience in the development sector livelihoods/Agriculture/Agro - Forestry, with domain knowledge of sustainable energy driven livelihoods and agri & allied is preferred with a specific Interested in energy access, livelihood, and ecosystem building
  • Strong management, project designing and operation skills, along with Stakeholder management and relationship building capabilities
  • Ability to analyze data and derive meaningful learnings and insights from information gathered to create knowledge products and program design.
  • Demonstrating proactive approaches to problem-solving with strong decision- making capability and ability to work in an interdisciplinary and multicultural environment
  • Proficiency in using Microsoft Office, Excel, and PowerPoint.
  • Highly proficient in Kannada and English with strong communication skills- written and oral
  • Willingness to travel extensively within and outside the State as and when required.

To apply please send in your CV and cover letter to apply@selcofoundation.org with “Project Manager- Champion Farmer Program_ Agriculture ” in the subject line.

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