Agronomist at Yara International

About the Unit

• Yara Fertilizer Africa has an exciting career opportunity for an Agronomist to maintain and build on the performance, image and service of the company by providing specialised technical services to the sales team and customers in the designated geographical areas, on the following topics: Crop production- and nutrition advice; marketing support and training; new products and concepts.  Tropical crops - bananas, sugar cane, avocadoes.  Also potatoes and maize.  The position will be based in Kwazulu-Natal - Pietermaritzburg area.

Responsibilities
Agronomic Support

• Integrating specialized knowledge of Plant Nutrition, Crop production and Soil Science to pro-actively act on market needs and technical advances.
• Provide excellent plant nutritional service and support to sales force and customers to ensure optimum crop health and production in the targeted crop segments.
• Support sales force and customers with Fertilizer recommendations and crop advice.
• Do the plant nutritional recommendations in terms of products, quantities, application and timing based on soil analysis and according to industry norms and Yara guidelines.
• Farm visits and field inspections to customers in his designated area.
• Attend agricultural/farmer’s days/events and give technical inputs/presentations.
• Develop the technical abilities of the sales force (Agronomic training).
• Support customers and sales with water management issues.

Responsibilities (Continued)

• Marketing and Operational Support
• Align and prioritize activities with the local Yara commercial strategy.
• Communication and synergy with local commercial management regarding designated area’s commercial goals.
• Communication and synergy with local operational/general management regarding operational/general issues.
• Build and maintain excellent customer relationships and –service (internal and external).
• Marketing/promoting of Yara’s differentiated products and supporting sales force to increase sales of these products.
• Marketing/promoting of Yara OPP products (YaraMila, Yara Vita, Yara Liva and Yara Rega) and supporting sales force to increase sales of these products.
• Marketing/promoting the use of Yara Tools among sales force and customers. (AllFarm, N-tester, Check-it, Tank mix etc).
• Use knowledge of plant nutrition as well as company’s products to produce and update product manuals, promotional articles and other technical promotional material (e.g. crop leaflets).
• Market and promote new products and concepts.
• Investigate Customer complaints/claims and produce a technical report according to internal Yara guidelines and management’s requests.

Qualifications and Experience

• B.Sc. Agric. degree with majors in relevant disciplines (Agronomy/Horticulture/Soil Science)-Postgraduate qualification will be beneficial/recommended.
• Good understanding of geographic information system (GIS) technology and spatial data
• Firm knowledge of fertigation concepts
• Registered Professional Natural Scientist.
• Minimum 8-10 years’ experience in similar role/environment.
• Adequate English and Afrikaans language skills are essential.