Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) is a Swiss based non-profit international development organization aiming at creating value for smallholders farmers in Asia and Africa by promoting sustainable agriculture technologies and activation of value chains that help farmers to increase food production, improve access to markets, and mitigate risks. SFSA, with its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland focuses on scalable innovations and act as a catalyst and incubator. SFSA is present in Kenya as Syngenta Foundation East Africa (SFEA) a non-profit organization, which focuses on creating value for resource-poor smallholder farmers in developing countries through innovation in sustainable agriculture and the activation of value chains.

Activities in Kenya began in 2009, working with farmers in the arid and semi-arid areas of Laikipia. Since 2018, SFEA’s operational strategy has been focused on validating commercially viable business models to facilitate access to a range of agricultural services from production to market, including input and output hubs. Machinery rental options form a part of these business models. Greater mechanization enables farmers to raise productivity, reduce drudgery and free up time for additional off-farm employment. The services also cover training on agronomy and compliance with the quality standards required for access to more lucrative markets, input buying, and output sales. To learn more, please visit www.syngentafoundation.org.

Major Functions

Under the supervision of Head of Agriservices, position holder will be responsible for the following key responsibilities;

1.Facilitating Partnerships and Partners Management

• At the country, regional, and global level, the role requires that through existing infrastructure (people, knowledge, and technology) the individual will develop professional relationships with business partners including identification, initiation, driving, coordination, collaboration and management of both internal and external partners.
• Drive collaboration with partners and stakeholders to incubate and develop models for credit financing, mechanization, aggregation, inputs supplies and extension service delivery that creates value for smallholder farmers. The individual will facilitate and formalize vertical and horizontal B2B linkages and networks
• Support a dynamic network of distribution agencies by offering opportunities for first market entry points, and attracting new business partners and larger distributors through the existing SFSA’s business model
• Source, onboard, and manage strategic partners who can deploy the SFSA business models to drive the SFEA strategic outcomes
• Act as a key liaison resource person for the on-boarded partners and stakeholders within Agriservices

2. Innovation Management

• While working with the Head of Agriservices, SFSA country teams, SFSA research and development department, partners, and stakeholders, the individual will establish and run Innovation Labs, by driving needs identification, run-early-stage field trials and adaptation activities, evaluating technical suitability and partners work to deliver potential business cases for the innovations to be used in driving scale up
• Proactively work with strategic partners at a technical level on the ground to jointly identify needs and problems to be resolved in the respective farming systems and together with SFSA colleagues and partners, source or develop programs that will test potential solutions from the identified options

3. Business Development and Resource Mobilisation  

• Support the development of new markets by connecting local and regional private and/or public partners, investors sourcing technologies, and SFSA distribution networks with the new technologies to facilitate scale-up opportunities
• Co-develop and deploy economically viable models for farmer aggregation and service delivery to farmers (inputs, mechanization, extension, markets, finance) building on existing models from SFSA, and internal and external partners.
• Drive resource mobilization and fundraising for SFEA-Agriservices with internal and external partners and stakeholders

• Degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture Education and Extension, International Development  or related courses.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in the agricultural development space with a bias in resource mobilization, partnerships management, business development, project management or donor relations
• Excellent command of Swahili and English.
• Excellent report writing and communication skills.
• Dedicated and highly motivated professional, with a strong spirit for teamwork and sense of initiative.