MIDAS - Team Member - Agriculture The Convergence Foundation (TCF)

Theconvergencefoundation; Deoria; On-site; INR 669,600 - 1,004,400; Full time

Job summary

The Amrit Prayas Project Team seeks a dedicated Team Member – Agriculture to design and implement interventions in agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture. You will focus on productivity, diversification, farmer institutions, and market linkages with buyers and private players.

The role requires strong execution, farmer engagement, documentation ability, and close coordination with government and private stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture or related field is required.
• Master’s degree preferred in Agriculture/Agribusiness/Development Studies.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in agriculture or rural development.
• Experience with government projects, farmer advisory, or FPO development.
• Strong documentation, communication, and training skills.

Responsibilities

• Support delivery of agriculture and allied projects aligned with sustainability goals.
• Identify opportunities for high‑value crops and diversification; drive productivity.
• Facilitate processing, branding, certification, and packaging initiatives.
• Enable market linkages with buyers, traders, and digital platforms.
• Monitor progress with dashboards and farmer logs; report regularly.
• Coordinate across Enterprise and Investment teams for integrated solutions.
• Draft project reports, DPRs, case studies, and best practices.

Skills

Farmer engagement

Documentation

Monitoring & reporting

Stakeholder coordination

Project execution

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture

Master’s degree in Agriculture/ Agribusiness/ Development Studies

Job description

Amrit Prayas is a 10-year Economic Development Strategy for Deoria Lok Sabha. It will be implemented under the Deoria Development Alliance, an initiative led by Member of Parliament Shri Shashank Mani and supported by an experienced team of leaders. It aims to increase the district's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to ~9.2% annually over the next decade, generate 1.7 lakh additional employment, keeping environmental sustainability in mind while releasing Human Potential.

The vision and mission of Amrit Prayas is to rapidly and equitably grow GDP over historical trends, create large-scale, high-quality employment especially for non-farm jobs, while preserving the environment and realizing human potential. Furthermore, we seek to do this in an inclusive manner by having a village and cluster level implementation plan. A visionary and ambitious project as Amrit Prayas will require a whole-of-society effort with the private sector, the public sector and the citizens coming together for implementation.

Project Management Unit

The Project Management Unit (PMU) will implement the 10-year roadmap for district‑led economic development in Deoria. This team will work directly with concerned stakeholders to anchor investments, remove bottlenecks, and oversee the development and execution of key projects. Their major work streams will be:

• Agri­culture and Allied Industries
• Investment Attraction
• Anchor Projects

Personnel within the Project Management Unit are full‑time professionals dedicated to the daily execution of Amrit Prayas, responsible for strategic delivery, grassroots coordination, stakeholder engagement, and rigorous program monitoring.

Team Member – Agriculture

About the Role:

The Team Member – Agriculture will support the design and implementation of interventions in agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture. The role will focus on:

• Enhancing productivity of existing crops
• Diversifying into high‑value crops
• Strengthening farmer institutions (FPOs, SHGs, cooperatives)
• Building value addition and processing infrastructure
• Enabling market linkages with institutional buyers and private players

The role demands strong execution skills, farmer engagement capabilities, documentation ability, and close coordination with government and private stakeholders. The Team Member will report to the Team Lead – Agriculture.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Implementation – Support delivery of agriculture and allied projects under Amrit Prayas, aligned with sustainability and inclusivity goals.
• Crop Diversification & Productivity – Identify opportunities for high‑value crops and diversification opportunities such as banana, turmeric, vegetables, mushrooms, and aquaculture diversification. Drive productivity enhancement in staple crops through better inputs, irrigation, and agronomic practices. Work with FPOs, SHGs, and cooperatives to strengthen collective bargaining, input access, and aggregation. Mobilize farmers for pilots, trainings, and exposure visits.
• Value Chain Development – Facilitate primary/secondary processing (sorting, grading, chips, powders, feed mills, dairy chilling, poultry units). Guide branding, certification (GI/organic), and packaging initiatives.
• Market Linkages – Enable connections with buyers, traders, and digital platforms. Develop cluster‑based linkages for high‑value crops and livestock products.
• Sustainability & Climate‑Smart Agriculture – Promote water efficiency (drip/sprinklers), soil health, crop rotation, organic inputs, renewable energy (solar irrigation, cold storage). Identify opportunities for carbon projects and climate‑smart interventions.
• Monitoring & Reporting – Prepare detailed action plans with milestones and household‑level targets. Track implementation progress via dashboards, farmer logs, and periodic reporting.
• Cross‑vertical Coordination – Collaborate with Enterprise and Investment teams for integrated solutions (e.g., linking processing infrastructure to farmer supply).
• Knowledge & Documentation – Draft project reports, feasibility assessments, DPRs, case studies, and best‑practice documents. Capture learnings from pilots to support replication and scale‑up.

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Horticulture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, or related field (required).
• Master’s degree in Agriculture, Agribusiness Management, Development Studies, or related discipline (preferred).

Professional Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience in agriculture/rural development, agribusiness, value chain projects, or allied fields.
• Experience in government projects, farmer advisory, FPO development, or agribusiness ecosystems.
• Ability to work closely with farmers and grassroots institutions while also engaging national buyers and startups.
• Strong documentation, communication, and training skills.
• Comfort in multi‑stakeholder, fast‑paced environments with tight delivery timelines.

Location

The base location will be Deoria with travel to Delhi, and any other place as required for work.

Remuneration

Competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications, aligned with sector norms for leadership roles in enterprise building and development projects.