WARC Group Job Employment Opportunity. Job Title: Farmer Connector
About WARC Group
We work to get farmers out of poverty. That’s our dream. We want to see Africa feeding the world in our lifetimes and its farmers to become the guardians of one of humanity’s most precious resource: the soils.
We design and sell regenerative farming inputs as a service. With this, farmers can grow exponentially their incomes, improve their quality of life and develop a stronger tie to their lands. We worked with a thousand farmers and generated a very solid proof of concept. Now we aim high- we want one million farmers adopting our services within a decade.
Warc has humble beginnings. We did not learn how to run a business from a book; we have real, tangible experience. Warc’s revenue has grown 50x over the last 4 years and our goal is to triple it within the next 18 months. We began with a $30,000 investment from our founders and rapidly scaled up to raising over $5,000,000 in equity, debt and grants from angel, government and institutional investors.
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We are a dynamic team of 150 employees from 16 different countries, all dreamers, all doers. We’re now more than 50 in Ghana managing farms and working with 5,000 farmers in the Upper West Region. We operate across West Africa, with established agricultural production and consulting operations in Sierra Leone and Ghana. In the next decade, we aspire to be present across West Africa. Help us do it!
About the Job
Great candidates want to make an impact, and they don’t shy away from challenges! Our Trading Hub Program – the heart of the Warc business model – needs you to join the team on the ground; represent us in the communities, and most importantly, be the first contact point for our farmers.
You will foster trust between Warc and the farmers, and between the farmers themselves. The Trading Hub Program is focused on women economic empowerment by making women farmers the Leads of Trading Hubs in their communities who sell inputs, facilitate knowledge transfer and aggregate produce.
This role is specifically for a Farmer Connector to be based in Tumu, Upper West Region of Ghana. The work area expands to three potential districts of Sissala East, Sissala West, and Wa East.
You will work directly with our Trading Hubs Program Manager and be responsible for helping grow our farmer network and managing up Trading Hub Leads, among others supporting in inventory management, administration and sales.
You’ll spend your days mainly on the field, with the farmers on their fields and in their communities, but with regular check-ins with our Program Manager. You’ll become an important part of the communities where farmers will reach out to you for technical advice and guidance.
The main responsibilities of the Farmer Connector include:
- Build long-term relationships
- Manage all relationships with Trading Hub Leads– be the first point of contact for them
- Develop and maintain trust amongst farmers and farmer groups and with Warc
- Offer innovative agricultural extension services and products (on-the-job training will be provided)
- Follow Warc’s extension methodology and adapt it to farmers with different years of experience
- Facilitate weekly farmer training seasons with farmer groups
- Work with the Program Manager on community entry and new farmer acquisition
- Support the input delivery to farmers
- Work as part of a team
- Ensure a constant and clear communication with the Program Manager, especially about any challenges and problems
- Support monitoring, evaluation and learning efforts
- Ensure a consistent reporting of daily activities
- Support data collection for monitoring and impact measurement activities
- Monitor farmers’ fields and report crop’s status
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About you
Warc is excited to have a driven, talented, and hardworking person join our team. We can teach many of the technical skills, but it is very important for the person to have a strong interest in technology, agriculture, and rural development in order to succeed in this role. A suitable candidate will have the following characteristics:
Required Skills:
- Willingness to work in a start-up environment – the ability to see what problem needs to be solved, and being the one to make it happen
- A relevant college or university degree in agriculture, social work, communication, rural development, psychology or similar
- Belief in business approaches to development and supporting the growth of farmers (essential!)
- Good interpersonal communication skills and social skills – can deliver specific communication about the company, establish trust and feedback loops
- Confident in front of groups and in new environments – can facilitate group meetings and develop relationship
- Team player and willing to learn
- Speaks fluent English and Twi (other languages from Northern Ghana is a bonus – especially Sissala)
- Flexibility and ability to work without constant supervision – The drive, confidence, and creativity to get the job done
- Willingness and availability to live in remote areas (Tumu)
Nice-to-have skills:
- Have a license to operate a motorcycle in Ghana (or willingness to learn operating a motorbike quickly)
- Experience or interest in working in a highly cross-cultural environment
- Have 1-2 years of experience working in the Upper West or other Northern Regions of Ghana
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How to Apply for the WARC Group Job Employment Opportunity
Applications are being accepted until 23rd of October or until position is filled. Expected start date is immediate (November 5th 2022). Women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
Please send a cover letter and CV to hr.recruitment@warcgroup.com, addressed to HR at Warc Ghana. Documents should be labelled clearly with your full name and in English. Applications not fulfilling requirements and/or with spelling errors, formatting issues, missing documents will not be reviewed.
Only those who are successful for an interview will be contacted.