Agronomist Job Opportunity at Uniliver
Job Overview
Agronomist
Job ID:R-41171
Category:Supply Chain
Location:Mufindi, Iringa
Date posted:06/28/2022
Purpose of the Role
To coordinate Agronomic activities in Unilever Tea Tanzania – undertake trialing, support roll out and implementation of good agricultural practices and sustainable and regenerative agriculture initiatives
Key Responsibilities
Technical
Undertake fertilizer calibration and harvesting experiments. Draft design and protocols, undertake trial sites identification and lay out agreed experiments to meet objectives.
Coordinate the monitoring of crop nutritional status in all production fields and advise on remedial measures
Evaluate new innovations in agricultural operations – planting, harvesting and general husbandry in line with company productivity improvements for the estates and the outgrowers
Supervise collection, collation, and analysis of data from the field experiments
Undertake preparation /drafting of agronomy trial reports
Responsible for training of field research assistants and data clerks.
Provide expert knowledge in Agronomy to ETT.
Seek leadership agreement in adoption of novel cost-effective agricultural technologies
Support the operations in the implementation of GAP at the divisional level through engagement with divisional managers and field visit.
Collaborate with the company Tea breeders, the microbiologists, processing Technologists, and company engineers to develop and innovate growing and harvesting technologies.
Administrative
Collate and present data for the R&D annual budget preparation
Plan & supervise transport to experimental sites
Provide technical assistance to estate managers
Supervise data collection in line with the Unilever sustainable agriculture code of practice/ SA indicators
Coordinate documentation relevant to agricultural/environmental certification schemes subscribed to by Unilever Tea Kenya.
Maintain historical records and carry out biannual benchmarking with other competitor plantations.
Provide data for updating of the GAP manual.
Provide training to the estate managers on topical agronomic issues
Relationships
Jointly provide agronomic/plantation management information to the Estate/divisional managers, Outgrower managers, Finance managers, and procurement managers for effective production and cost management.
Engage with national research institutions in development of new tea growing technologies
Support provision of quality specifications to procurement team for effective sourcing of farm inputs
Evaluate and distil value from any research/plantation consultants.
Liaise with legal for publication and protection of internally developed agronomic technologies.
Work closely with R&D and field operations teams to understand challenges of green leaf production, interdependencies and potential solutions
Scope
Undertakes projects within Unilever Tea plantation Tanzania, Mufindi and Njombe Outgrowers network.
Challenges
Influencing ability to gain commitment of the operations team
Maintain solid understanding of current agronomic knowledge and trends in agricultural business dynamics
Handling varied and often conflicting requests from operations
Competencies
Strong analytical power, statistical acumen, Organizational awareness, influencing ability, and working knowledge on business acumen.
Good team player and adept at building strong cross-cultural/ cross-functional working relationships.
Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.
