APPLY BY
April 1, 2024
KNOW BY
June 1, 2024
DEPART BY
December 9, 2024
DURATION
2 years, plus 3 months training
APPLY ONLINE: Agriculture Extension Volunteer (peacecorps.gov)
Project Description
Known as "the water tower of West Africa," Guinea has abundant natural resources and contains the headwaters of the region's major rivers. Good management of resources, water, forests, and soils will facilitate potential farming, animal rearing, and create jobs for youth and women's groups. However, a study by the World Food Program in November 2020 indicated that 55% of Guineans live below the poverty line, and more than 21% of households are food insecure. Rural populations and subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition rates are alarming, especially in rural areas. The Government of Guinea seeks to increase the agriculture sector's contribution to food security, nutrition, and poverty reduction.
Agriculture Extension Volunteers work alongside smallholder farmers because they receive limited technical assistance, access to seeds and fertilizers, production and processing equipment, storage facilities or other basic infrastructure, and affordable financial services. As a Volunteer, you will work with many stakeholders to support this goal, including local cooperatives, individuals, households, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government field agents, and researchers. Women play a crucial role in agriculture and food production even though they have more difficulty accessing land and productive resources, education, formal employment, and income-generating activities. Volunteers form strong collaborative partnerships with community members, especially women and youth, to analyze community needs. Volunteers work alongside their host community to promote the long-term, sustainable use of new agricultural techniques for diversified and increased nutrient-rich food production and natural resource management.
According to the needs of the assigned community, Volunteers will work to promote sustainable agricultural practices through the following activities:
• Improve the diversity, yield, and sustainability of crops through multi-purpose tree planting and fruit production (moringa, fruit, coffee, and cashew)
• Promote alternative farming practices such as small animal husbandry (poultry and bees), food transformation and conservation, soap making with natural resources such as herbal products or honey
• Increase household incomes by working with community members to identify and develop income-generating activities and post-harvest management (rice, cashew, moringa)
• Develop new products and strengthen basic business practices (calculate business costs, record keeping, calculating profits)
• Improve basic farm management skills
• Increase dietary diversity through nutrition education and food preparation techniques
• Increase the capacity of women of reproductive age and key household decision-makers to increase the dietary diversity of households
• Promote watershed management skills
During the three-month Pre-Service Training (PST), you will learn how to build individual home gardens and other farming techniques on your own, or in a small group with other Trainees. You will be encouraged to learn from previous mistakes and successes with supervision, guidance, and constructive feedback from staff. Staff will lead guided farm visits and share learning resources such as tutorials and training manuals. Peace Corps provides Volunteers with a technical supply fund to buy improved seeds and garden tools. After training, you will build a demonstration garden and nursery with your community counterpart in your worksite. In addition, you will do community or cross-sectoral exchange travel to amplify learning and invite peers and stakeholders in and around your community. You will receive continued training on agribusiness, food processing, beekeeping, nutrition-sensitive home gardening, small-scale local poultry farming, and climate change-sensitive agriculture.
Climate Change Activities
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident, the social, economic, and environmental context within which smallholder farmers seek to maintain and improve their livelihood and support their families will continue to change. This will add significantly to the challenges of smallholder farming, particularly for the most disadvantaged communities. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will be trained to use a participatory approach and tools to identify locally determined priorities and conditions, including those related to the impacts of climate change. As an Agriculture Volunteer, you will be trained to use this local knowledge in engaging smallholder farmers in a climate-smart approach that:
• Promotes the adoption of improved, appropriate, and adaptive agricultural practices and technologies that sustainably increase productivity;
• Builds and strengthens household resilience by integrating and diversifying existing and new agriculture-related income-generating opportunities; and
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions attributable to ineffective and carbon intensive farming practices and encourages adoption of agricultural practices and activities that sequester carbon.
Required Skills
Qualified candidates will have an expressed interest in working in agriculture and one or more of the following criteria:
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field
OR
• 5 years' professional work experience
