Senior Economist: Agribusiness Development Reference No: HRREC016/24 at National Agricultural Marketing Council

Qualification and Experience: 

• Masters in Agricultural Economics or Economics. 3 - 5 years’ experience in Agricultural Environment. Drivers Licence. Strong financial management and budgeting. Understanding of Government Statutes, Procedures, and Processes.
• Good understanding of and/or experience working in public entities or other relevant organisations. Experience in conducting research and disseminating research output.  

Knowledge and Skills 

• Knowledge of the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act of 1996 (MAP) Act. Marketing strategies. Business and agricultural environment. Financial principles. Document administration. Basic understanding of the agriculture subsectors and challenges faced by smallholder farmers.
• Knowledge and practical application of statistical software such as STATA, SPSS, and E-Views amongst others. Full knowledge and use of MS Word Office (Excel, MS Word and PowerPoint). Basic knowledge and practical application of project management. Knowledge of databases such as the Abstract of Agricultural Statistics, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), TradeMap, South African Revenue Services (SARS) and ability to extract data and formulate an analysis. 

Key duties responsibility 

Link Smallholder Farmers to market opportunities 

• Link farmers with market opportunities per quarter and produce quarterly reports 
• Analyse the market to support demand driven agricultural products 
• Engage buyers to solicit a signed specification of the commodity to be supplied to the market 
• Identify the production area where the commodity in demand is produced/growing 
• Identify and profile smallholder farmers who can supply the market 
• Assess farmers readiness and compliance to buyer specification (conduct farmers assessment) 

Farmer Development Support Facilitation 

• Facilitate farmer development support for the farmers linked to the identified market and produce quarterly reports 
• Profile the farmers that are identified for the markets 
• Identify constraints hindering the farmers to supply the market 
• Conduct Stakeholder identification and facilitate engagement including buyers and government departments for buy in and intervention 
• Solicit support from other relevant stakeholders to address constraints 
• Compile a detailed report on farmer development support facilitated. 

Production Scheme deigned 

• Design (1) production scheme. 
• Detailed quarterly reports for Q1, Q2 and Q3. 
• Comprehensive production scheme document in quarter four 

Cross-focus areas and Cross divisional work 

• Provide input into (3) cross-focus areas and cross-divisional work per quarter and produce (4) quarterly reports.