Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator

Apply by

January 1, 2025

Know by

April 1, 2025

Depart on

August 29, 2025

Duration

2 years, plus 3 months training

Project description

Role

Karibu Tanzania! Present since 1961, Tanzania is one of Peace Corps’ oldest programs. Sustainable Agriculture Volunteers introduce improved technologies to maximize crop production, diversify farming, encourage appropriate agricultural practices, and create new opportunities for smallholder farmers. Through training and capacity building, Peace Corps Tanzania’s Sustainable Agriculture project promotes food security, sustainable livelihoods, and increased resilience. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) mobilize community leaders, identify community counterparts and work with individual farmers and community-based organizations interested in learning new and improved ways of farming. They support awareness raising and play the role of development catalyst. Examples of PCV activities include:

• Train farmers to employ new crop cultivation technologies and management practices to improve crop production, mainly horticulture crops, and food security.
• Educate farmers on sustainable soil and water conservation technologies and management practices.
• Train farmers on basic business skills to facilitate a process to identify, develop, and implement agriculture-based income generating activities (IGAs).
• Train farmers on technologies and management practices to conserve, store, and/or transform agricultural products to add value.
• Train farmers on improved small animal husbandry technologies and management practices, principally small-scale poultry production and/or bee keeping.
• Teach women of reproductive age and/or key household decision makers the importance of consuming and cooking nutrient-rich foods.
• Train farmers on agroforestry tree production and system design technologies and management practices.
  
  

Using this participatory approach, PCVs help to assess the local knowledge, resources and needs, collaboratively determine the best and most appropriate interventions, and select sustainable projects that they can undertake during the time frame of their two-year service.

Working with a community counterpart, PCVs also have the opportunity to undertake secondary projects that address other community needs. Examples include teaching English or science at local primary schools, promoting healthy behaviors through sports for boys and girls, improving school or health center facilities, supporting rainwater catchment projects, and rehabilitating latrines. While much of the work will take place during weekday daytime hours, some activities, particularly in the community, may take place at night or on weekends. Key dates such as the International Malaria Day and World AIDS Day are opportunities to implement social-mobilization activities, and many PCVs work with their village government to prepare a community-wide awareness event. Of great importance in Peace Corps community development work is PCV integration and being present in the community, developing relationships with neighbors and key community members such as teachers and religious leaders, and building trust.

Peace Corps Tanzania promotes gender awareness and girls’ education and empowerment. PCVs receive training on gender challenges in Tanzania and can implement gender-related activities that are contextually appropriate to promote gender-equitable norms and increase girls’ sense of agency. As part of their work, PCVs will also report on these activities and results achieved.

Having a laptop is important as it enables PCVs to complete required reporting assignments offline and uploading them later. While PCVs may also complete assignments through local internet cafes or other access points, having a laptop will alleviate challenges of connectivity and facilitate access to technical resources for service as a Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator and for secondary projects. PCVs may want to consider purchasing personal property insurance to mitigate risks of damage or theft to electronic devices.

Climate change activities

As The Impacts Of Climate Change Become Ever More 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 Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator,, 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 a degree in Agriculture, Environment or agriculture-related field. Work experience in agriculture is highly desirable (e.g. backyard or community garden, urban gardening). Eligible degrees include the following:

• Bachelors of Science/Bachelors of Arts in an agriculture or environment-related field;
• Bachelors of Science/Bachelors of Arts in Land Use Planning and Management
• Bachelors of Science/Bachelors of Arts in food science and nutrition
• Bachelors of Science/Bachelors of Arts in animal science
  
  

Desired Skills

• 6 months’ practical experience growing vegetables or fruit or working in nursery.
• 1 year experience in large-scale commercial or family-run business including vegetable gardening, nursery work/management, tree planting, tree care, urban forestry, soil science, agribusiness, animal husbandry production.
• Self-Starter/Initiative: Demonstrate resourcefulness and creativity to proactively take action with minimal supervision or guidance.
• Accountability: The ability to make conscious decisions to act in accordance with Peace Corps’ expectations, policies, and procedures.
  
  

Please upload a copy of your unofficial or official transcripts when you apply. It will expedite the processing of your application.

Required Language Skills

There are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position. All Peace Corps Trainees will learn the local language throughout Pre-Service Training. PCVs are expected and encouraged to continue improving their local language skills throughout the service. Peace Corps Tanzania provides local language tutoring allowance during service except in the last three months of service.

According to the United Nations, Kiswahili is spoken by over 200 million people and is a communicative language in many East African countries. Many organizations within the United States have termed it a critical language. Tanzania presents a unique opportunity for PCVs to demonstrate accountability for critical language learning that can be used professionally post-service. PCVs selected to serve Tanzania can demonstrate core competencies of continual learning and initiative by connecting to resources such as Duo Lingo: duolingo.com/course/sw/en/Learn-swahili.

Living conditions

Tanzania has a diverse geography and climate. It can be hot and dry in central Tanzania, hot and humid in coastal areas, and the highland and mountainous areas have cool to cold temperatures seasonally.

During the hottest months (November-February) temperatures in the lowlands range from 90-105 °F, and 70-80 °F in the highlands. During the cold season (June-August), temperatures range from 60-75 °F in the lowlands and coast, and from 40-50 °F in the highlands. There are short rains in November or December, and longer rains between March and May.

PCVs are placed primarily in underserved rural communities. These communities can be within a few hours of small to mid-size towns, with banks, a variety of shops, markets, local restaurants, and guesthouses. Travel to Dar es Salaam can take anywhere from five hours to three days by road. PCVs generally use public buses as a main mode of transportation.

The host village provides PCV housing. It’s typically a stand-alone house. PCVs may use pit latrines, outdoor bath facilities, and fetch water from a village water source. PCV housing will have been assessed to meet agency safety, security, and health requirements. Access to and/or consistency of electricity and running water in one’s home is not a guarantee. However, many PCVs are beginning to live with those amenities. In all circumstances, PCVs will want to learn and exercise the core competencies: adaptability and flexible thinking, emotional agility, and problem solving in response to the inevitable challenges of living in a new environment.

Personal appearance is of great importance in Tanzania. Female PCVs are expected to wear modest dresses and long skirts (with covered knees, upper arms, and shoulders) and nice flat shoes or sandals. On Zanzibar or in other coastal Muslim communities, females tend to be more accepted when they cover their heads, as is the custom for women in those communities. When exercising, females should wear a sarong or cloth tied over shorts or yoga pants. Male PCVs should wear slacks, collared shirts, and loafers or other closed toed shoes when presenting themselves professionally. A PCV’s professional appearance, work habits, and positive attitude towards colleagues and community members will go a long way towards helping them gain the respect of their community.

PCVs may witness variations in dress among locals. What’s stated here is the traditional, most widely accepted form of dress and expectation during PST and likely throughout your service. You should think of your presentation and dress as an important tool to facilitate your integration into the communities where you will serve, especially at times when your local knowledge and language are just beginning to build. PCVs will learn and practice the core competencies of intercultural engagement and accountability by adhering to dress code norms.

PCVs will encounter different social and cultural norms that require flexibility and understanding. For example, the American sense of privacy in terms of information-sharing or physical space doesn’t really exist in Tanzania. PCVs are frequently asked personal questions and people will wonder why a PCV might want quiet moments alone. As a foreigner, there is also the added element of curiosity from children as well as adults.

Peace Corps provides a settling-in allowance that can be used to purchase furnishings necessary to make PCVs’ houses comfortable on a modest scale. PCVs get a stipend to purchase a bike to assist in their work activities and to make transportation easier.

Feminine hygiene products are provided to PCVs via the Peace Corps Medical Office or through an allowance where PCVs purchase them on their own. Those products may not be the same variety or brands that would be purchased in the United States.

Learn more about the Volunteer experience in Tanzania: Get detailed information on culture, communications, housing, and health/crime statistics in order to make a well-informed decision about serving.

Medical considerations

Before you apply, please review medical clearance and legal clearance to learn about the process.

Couples information

Peace Corps Tanzania Can Accept Couples Who Wish To Serve Together. To Serve As a Couple In Tanzania, Your Partner Must Qualify And Apply For One Of The Following Programs

• Community Health Educator
• Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator
• Secondary School Math Teacher
• Secondary School Science Teacher
  
  

Couples will live together with a host family during Pre-Service Training but may be separated for short-term field-based activities if they are in different project sectors. During service, couples will live together in a village house. Due to Tanzania's cultural expectation that whenever a couple lives together they are by default married, unmarried couples should be prepared to present themselves as married throughout their service.