Description
Volunteers participating in the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Project make it a priority to teach smallholder farmers new and improved techniques in home gardening, poultry, beekeeping, and nutrition. As Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers serving in rural villages, Volunteers help improve farmers' food security.
Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are assigned to farmers’ training centers located in small towns ranging from 500-3,000 inhabitants. Working with local Development Agents, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers work directly with smallholder farming families to increase the availability of diverse and nutritious foods; resulting in farming families improving their nutrition and food security. To do this, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers undertake many tasks, including:
• Building demonstration gardens using bio-intensive gardening techniques, including: composting, fencing, water management, plant nursery, bed construction, and organic soil amendments
• Teaching local farmers bio-intensive gardening practices at their homes
• Constructing poultry demonstrations promoting improvements in nutrition, sanitation and management of stock
• Establishing beehive demonstrations promoting best practices for maintaining sustainable bee colonies
• Teaching smallholder farmers improved poultry management and beekeeping at their homes
• Organizing and delivering nutrition lessons paired with cooking demonstrations, using locally available and affordable foods; including the home garden produce, poultry, and honey
The Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers and their counterparts spend a substantial amount of time in the field working directly with farmers. In the early stages of the assignment they may work directly with their counterpart one or more days a week at their office and in the field, and later in service, they will spend the majority of their time in the field with the farming families. This is a hands-on assignment where you will be working directly with at least five farming families to help them establish and/or improve diverse garden production, adopt new or improved small animal husbandry practices, and increase consumption of more diverse and nutritious foods.
Along with their agriculture and nutrition work, many Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are involved with school clubs, youth camps, sports, and other extracurricular activities. Peace Corps Ethiopia also promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. You will receive training on gender challenges in Ethiopia and you will have the opportunity to implement gender-related activities that are contextually appropriate. During your service, you will look for ways to work with community members to promote gender-equitable norms and increase girls’ sense of agency. As part of your work, you will also report on these efforts and their impact.
During Pre-Service Training, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers will spend 12 weeks living with a local family and being trained on technical, cross-cultural, language, medical, and safety and security aspects within the rural Ethiopian context. Peace Corps staff will measure your achievement to determine if you have successfully achieved competencies before swearing-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
Volunteers participating in the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Project make it a priority to teach smallholder farmers new and improved techniques in home gardening, poultry, beekeeping, and nutrition. As Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers serving in rural villages, Volunteers help improve farmers' food security.
Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are assigned to farmers’ training centers located in small towns ranging from 500-3,000 inhabitants. Working with local Development Agents, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers work directly with smallholder farming families to increase the availability of diverse and nutritious foods; resulting in farming families improving their nutrition and food security. To do this, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers undertake many tasks, including:
• Building demonstration gardens using bio-intensive gardening techniques, including: composting, fencing, water management, plant nursery, bed construction, and organic soil amendments
• Teaching local farmers bio-intensive gardening practices at their homes
• Constructing poultry demonstrations promoting improvements in nutrition, sanitation and management of stock
• Establishing beehive demonstrations promoting best practices for maintaining sustainable bee colonies
• Teaching smallholder farmers improved poultry management and beekeeping at their homes
• Organizing and delivering nutrition lessons paired with cooking demonstrations, using locally available and affordable foods; including the home garden produce, poultry, and honey
The Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers and their counterparts spend a substantial amount of time in the field working directly with farmers. In the early stages of the assignment they may work directly with their counterpart one or more days a week at their office and in the field, and later in service, they will spend the majority of their time in the field with the farming families. This is a hands-on assignment where you will be working directly with at least five farming families to help them establish and/or improve diverse garden production, adopt new or improved small animal husbandry practices, and increase consumption of more diverse and nutritious foods.
Along with their agriculture and nutrition work, many Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers are involved with school clubs, youth camps, sports, and other extracurricular activities. Peace Corps Ethiopia also promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. You will receive training on gender challenges in Ethiopia and you will have the opportunity to implement gender-related activities that are contextually appropriate. During your service, you will look for ways to work with community members to promote gender-equitable norms and increase girls’ sense of agency. As part of your work, you will also report on these efforts and their impact.
During Pre-Service Training, Agriculture and Nutrition Development Workers will spend 12 weeks living with a local family and being trained on technical, cross-cultural, language, medical, and safety and security aspects within the rural Ethiopian context. Peace Corps staff will measure your achievement to determine if you have successfully achieved competencies before swearing-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
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Benefits
Health coverage, Housing, Living allowance, Non-competitive eligibility (federal jobs), Stipend, Student loan forbearance, Training
Education Requirements
College Graduate
Desired Languages
English
Other Conditions
Prohibits paid work outside of the sponsoring agency at any time
Subject to criminal background check