Job Title: Business Advisor
Organisation: Farm Africa
Duty Station: Bugiri, Uganda
Reports to: Project Manager, REGAIN Project
About Organisation:
Farm Africa is a leading charity that works in partnership with smallholder farmers and small businesses in eastern Africa to improve the quality, quantity and value of their produce, so that they can support their families with more resilient livelihoods. We build the positive case for farming in harmony with nature, so that increasing yields goes hand in hand with restoring ecosystems and biodiversity.
Purpose of the role: Farm Africa secured a three-year AGRA funded project to support farmers in Eastern Uganda in a consortium with Equator Seeds, The Grain Council of Uganda (TGCU), and Stanbic bank. The project focusses on “Enhancing resilient food systems for 76,400 smallholder farmers households with climate adaptative and inclusive food loss reduction solutions in Eastern Uganda.”
The Business Advisor (BA) will lead on farmer mobilizations, capacity building, and strengthening commercial relationships between smallholder farmers, Village Based Advisors, agrodealers, suppliers, and other market actors in Eastern for increased adoption and supply of affordable of Food Loss Reduction Solutions (FLRS).
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Project planning: To play a key role in activity planning and sequencing of activities to ensure maximum impact:
- Support the Project Manager in developing a detailed implementation plan and budget in line with REGAIN’s requirements, milestones and contractual plans for the overall programme.
- Support the Project Manager to manage monthly, quarterly and annual work plans for project activities and logistics, identifying and responding to the implications of interdependencies between different sub-project work stream activities.
- Support the Project Manager to regularly review delivery progress against plans, highlighting areas of concern in a timely manner and proactively addressing them in good time.
Project technical delivery: deliver project activities to a high standard, and in line with Farm Africa and donor guidelines and requirements
- Lead farmer mobilization, and digital profiling of 76,400 smallholder farmer households.
- Train and equip 382 VBAs and district agricultural officers to roll out climate-resilient FL-RS to farmers
- In collaboration with Equator Seeds, support the establishment of 382 on-farm demonstrations on climate-smart PHH and FL-RS technologies.
- Train Smallholder farmers on climate-resilient FL-RS
- Conduct a scoping study to profile suppliers and assess youth and women groups
- Train agro-dealers and processors on complementary services on FL-Rs
- Scale digital demand aggregation and payment platforms with tech partners
- Promote uptake of FL-RS technologies by 76,400 smallholder farmer households.
- Support the formation/strengthening of 1530 VSLAs to promote adoption of FL-RS
- In collaboration with Stanbic bank, digitize 1530 VSLAs and 50 SACCOs for microloan access for FL-RS investment.
- In collaboration with Stanbic bank, train 382 VBAs in financial literacy and link them with banks.
- In collaboration with Stanbic bank, facilitate linkage of 1530 VSLAs and 50 SACCOs to affordable, diversified financial services (e.g., FlexiPay).
Financial management: deliver assigned activities in accordance with financial guidelines and within available budgets
- Support the Project Manager to regularly forecast budgets in line with any changes in implementation plans, and where required, to reflect the changing financial context (e.g., inflation, exchange rates)
- Support the Project Manager to review budget monitoring reports, and provide timely explanations and corrective actions for any significant variances
- Support Project Manager and FAM to monitor financial risks, developing and implementing mitigation actions as needed
Monitoring and evaluation of the project’s outputs, outcomes and impact
- Contribute to the development and implementation of Monitoring & Learning Plan (MLP) for the project in line with Farm Africa’s guidelines and the donor’s requirements
- Support mid-term, annual, final evaluation and other external evaluations, ensuring that learning and recommendations from those evaluations are explicitly incorporated into the project’s future implementation activity
- Contribute to internal and external reporting, and annual & semi-annual project performance reviews and workshops
- Document and share case studies, success stories, best practices and key lessons
- Review key and critical lessons learned to identify success factors for scaling program efficacy
- Participate in Joint Results Review Committee (JRRC) Meetings quarterly.
- Participate in annual project performance review.
Playing a Play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Country team
- Contribute to the development and implementation of Farm Africa’s strategy
- Identify and explore opportunities to grow and expand the country project pipeline, both in relation to the current project or related to new project opportunities
- Work with the MELC, CR and the Programme Funding Unit to prepare funding proposals where requested, ensuring that any lessons learned during implementation are documented and built into future project design
- Participate in country-level or pan-Farm Africa programme meetings with other project coordinators, as reasonably requested
These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job-related duties as required. All work responsibilities are subject to having performance goals and/or targets established.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- Postgraduate diploma/degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Economics, Business Administration, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or any other related field.
- Demonstrable understanding of rural development in Eastern Uganda context
- Excellent understanding of inclusive-based approaches to development and particularly approaches which encourage greater participation of women and youth,
- Good understanding of impactful models on private sector engagement
- Minimum 5 years of experience in market systems development, agribusiness advisory, or inclusive value chains
- Proven track record in facilitating market linkages and sales of food loss reduction solutions technologies, and business partnerships in rural/agricultural contexts
- Strong understanding of post-harvest technologies, food loss reduction solutions, and climate adaptation strategies.
- Experience of working in Busoga
- Direct experience of formalising smallholder producer supply chains, or supporting agribusinesses to do the same
- Experience of using a range of tools to monitor and report on project outcomes on an ongoing and regular basis
- Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills with the ability to work with both Government, CSOs and Private Sector stakeholders.
- Fluency in Lusoga
- Entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for rural development and skilled relationship builder and networker
- Excellent training/facilitation skills and experience
- Ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders based on trust, collaboration, demonstrated commitment and impact, deploying a wide range of influencing techniques as required
Desirable:
- Further relevant academic qualification in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or other relevant field
- Commercial mindset to developing food systems
- Hands on expertise in implementing private sector led models in rural settings
- Private sector experience regarding marketing/sales of food loss reduction solutions technologies
- Demonstrated leadership, line management and team building experience – including conducting appraisals and managing under-performance.
- Excellent organisational and planning skills with demonstrable ability to plan and manage your own workload including writing concept notes for activities and reporting on progress
Our Values
Investing in smallholder farming is the number one way to combat poverty in rural Africa. Farm Africa is a leading NGO specialising in growing agriculture, protecting the environment and developing businesses in rural Africa.
- EXPERT: Expertise and insightful evidence-based solutions are at the heart of everything Farm Africa does.
- GROUNDED: Our teams and partners work closely with local communities, engaging them in every level of decision-making.
- IMPACTFUL: We deliver long lasting change for farmers, their families, and the environments they live in.
- BOLD: We model innovative approaches and are not afraid to challenge strategies that are failing.
How to Apply:
To apply, please send a CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification and your availability/notice period to [email protected] including the job tittle in the subject line.
Deadline: 19th December 2025 by 5:00 pm EAT
NB: Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the referencing process.
Due to the urgent requirement to fill this position, applications will be assessed and suitable candidates invited for interview on a rolling basis. This may mean that the position is filled before the closing date so qualified candidates are urged to submit their applications promptly.
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