Field Agronomist

Job Description

Location: Field-based within an assigned territory, with extensive travel to farms,
farmer clusters, cooperatives, aggregation points and fulfilment centres

The Field Agronomist is the field-level owner of agronomic execution across assigned growers, farms, cooperatives and crops. The role converts approved crop protocols and buyer requirements into disciplined cultivation practice, verifies that every participating farmer and field is suitable and correctly profiled, and supervises Agronomic Agents to provide timely training, scouting, evidence, diagnosis, corrective action and harvest-readiness support throughout the crop cycle.

Field Agronomist is to ensure assigned farmers implement company’s crop protocols and produce the forecast quantity of traceable, buyer-specification-ready crops at the lowest responsible cost through validated fields, capable Agronomic Agents and disciplined crop-cycle supervision.

The Company’s supply promise depends on farms producing the expected quantity and quality at a commercially sustainable cost. Agronomy must therefore be managed as a measurable production system rather than a series of advisory visits. The Field Agronomist is accountable for the coverage and quality of field service, adoption of approved protocols, early visibility of crop risk, reliability of yield and harvest forecasts, input-use efficiency, farmer capability and the field evidence required to connect production to S&OP, sourcing, quality and fulfilment decisions. Success is demonstrated by improved yield, specification readiness and repeat farmer adoption – not by the number of visits, trainings or reports completed in isolation.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
• Five to seven years of progressive experience in agricultural extension, field agronomy, crop production operations or farm-management support, including responsibility for dispersed farmers, cooperatives or commercial farms.

• Demonstrated results improving marketable yield, crop quality, farmer practice adoption, production forecasting and cost efficiency for exportable crops or crops produced to demanding buyer specifications.

• Hands-on experience supervising extension officers, agronomy agents, field scouts or comparable distributed teams and managing coverage, journey plans, evidence quality and performance improvement.

• Strong practical experience in land and farmer profiling, crop establishment, soil fertility, nutrient management, irrigation or water management, integrated pest management, crop diagnosis, yield estimation, harvest readiness and post-harvest risk.

• Experience translating crop protocols, buyer specifications and certification or food-safety requirements into field instructions, farmer training, checklists, audits and corrective action. • Proven ability to manage agriculture across multiple sites and low-connectivity environments using geospatial, mobile field-service, digital advisory and analytics tools.

• Evidence of working effectively with Field Operations, Commercial, Product, QA, Supply Chain, Procurement and Finance while respecting independent control and approval authority.

• Demonstrated integrity and professional judgment in environments exposed to pesticide misuse, falsified field evidence, input leakage, farmer pressure, side-selling, land conflict and optimistic production claims.

QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Agriculture, Plant Science, Soil Science, Horticulture, Agricultural Extension or a closely related discipline; an advanced degree is advantageous.

• Relevant training or certification in integrated pest management, pesticide stewardship, soil and plant nutrition, GLOBALG.A.P. implementation, organic production, food safety, audit practice or agricultural extension is advantageous and may be required by crop portfolio.

• Strong numerical and analytical capability, including field-area validation, sampling, yield estimation, forecast analysis, input-rate calculation, unit economics and variance investigation.

• Clear written and verbal communication and the ability to coach farmers and agents, write technical reports, explain risk and influence cross-functional decisions without overstating certainty.

• Fluent professional English; relevant local-language capability is required or advantageous according to the assigned territory, and French is advantageous for cross-border operations.

• Readiness for extensive and sometimes short-notice field travel, outdoor work and crop-cycle demands across assigned Complete Farmer territories; valid driving eligibility and compliance with company field-safety requirements where applicable.