Sustainability Officer

Overview

Our client operating in the Cocoa sector is seeking self-motivated Sustainability Officer. The Sustainability Officer plays a key role in implementing Sustainability Programs in the field. The ideal candidate will ensure the daily implementation of sustainability activities with a designated farmer group and set of farmers, ensuring that activities are implemented on time, within budget, and to the required quality levels. 

Responsibilities

Sustainability Activities Implementation

• Collaborate with the relevant employees to develop the work plan for the designated farmer group and farmers.
• Deliver training and coaching sessions on improved agricultural techniques, soil management, pest control, Climate Smart Agriculture, tree planting, agroforestry, post-harvest handling and any other relevant topic to designated set of farmers.
• Follow up with trained farmers to ensure adoption of new farming practices. 
• Supervise and monitor the work of third parties providing farm services support to designated farmers.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Reporting

• Monitor and collect data to track progress and adoption
• Report progress of field activities regularly to the relevant employees.
• Report discrepancies in traceability data and work with the Traceability Team to ensure farmer and traceability records are consistently updated
• Document best practices, lesson learned and success stories about BC’s sustainability interventions

Certification & Compliance

• Adhere to SOPs in the implementation of all activities
• Support annual certification audits, when relevant (i.e.: COH)
• Follow-up on non-compliances detected in audits and assist in their correction
• Engage farmers to communicate requirements and support capacity-building efforts

Stakeholder Engagement

• Maintain strong working relationships with relevant key stakeholders while implementing activities
• Support our partners in the implementation of projects on the field
• Support client visits and be ready to showcase and explain sustainability interventions

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Agriculture with at least 3 years' experience in agriculture or farm management, an experience in cocoa production preferred.
• HND with 5 years of strong experience in cocoa farming.
• Familiarity with climate-smart agriculture, integrated pest management (IPM), and good agricultural practices (GAP).
• Good interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to speak a local language.
• Agronomic knowledge, especially on cocoa culture, or similar tree crops.
• Understanding of certification schemes, sustainability standards and stakeholder engagement is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of soil types and fertility management.
• Strong skills in facilitating trainings and on the job mentoring.
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities.
• Willing and able to work and travel 80% of the time in the rural communities.
• Have a valid permit and ability to ride a motorbike.