Product Assistant (Agronomy) - Lusaka, Zambia
Apollo Agriculture
Product
Lusaka, Zambia
Posted on Dec 4, 2024
About Apollo Agriculture:
Apollo Agriculture is a leading agri-fintech platform empowering small-scale farmers across Africa to increase their profits and farm more sustainably. Apollo uses artificial intelligence and automated operations to unlock the massive, untapped small-scale farming market. Apollo enables farmers to access the optimized financing, high-quality farm products, expert digital advice, and risk management solutions they need to invest and scale their businesses. Apollo grew paying customers over 2.5x in 2023 to over 200K small-scale farmers in Kenya and Zambia, increasing revenue to nearly $30M with robust unit economics. Apollo partners with key global agriculture companies like Bayer, OCP and Yara, and is backed by Anthemis, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, and Softbank Vision Fund. Apollo’s team brings together technology, credit and operations experience from The Climate Corporation, Google, Capital One, Revolut, and One Acre Fund.
About the Role:
We are seeking a dynamic agronomist with strong agricultural expertise to join our team as a Product Assistant (Agronomy) and provide on-the-ground support and training to farmers and field agents. This role focuses on gathering insights directly from the field to improve the effectiveness of our agricultural solutions and delivering accurate, timely, and actionable agronomic and product advice to drive better outcomes for farms and livelihoods. The successful candidate will conduct field visits to train farmers, address product-related concerns, and provide bespoke solutions. They will also contribute to the development of agronomy content and share field insights with the Product Team to support ongoing innovation and improvement.
Contract Duration: Six Months
Reporting Lines: This role reports to the Senior Agriculture Product Associate
Responsibilities:
- Conduct field-based user research to gather insights that inform the design and development of innovative agricultural products tailored to smallholder farmers' needs.
- Develop and deliver agronomic training to field officers.
- Provide expert support to address inquiries from farmers and farmer-facing teams, ensuring clear and actionable advice.
- Utilize resources such as farmer demonstrations and the Learn-ink platform for continuous training and advisory throughout the season.
- Lead research initiatives to evaluate product performance and impact, collecting data and feedback to refine offerings and drive measurable improvements in farmer outcomes
- Treat Apollo’s customers with respect and maintain high standards of customer care while attending to your duties.
Requirements:
- Minimum of a Diploma in Agricultural Sciences from a recognized Institution. A Bachelor’s Degree is an added advantage.
- Over 2 years of experience in farmer advisory, agricultural product sales, or agricultural projects and research, with a strong focus on grassroots-level engagement.
- Knowledgeable and experienced in diverse agricultural farming practices across Zambia
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with internal teams, external partners, and stakeholders.
- Comfortable using Google Docs and Sheets
- Hungry to learn and excited to make an impact through providing advice and developing products for smallholder farmers
- Able to rapidly assimilate new agronomic technical information and transfer the same to relevant teams in easily understandable and simplified form
- An able communicator who can clearly express technical ideas both verbally and in writing in English and Nyanja and/or Bemba
- A considerate listener who takes the time to deeply understand customers, teammates, and Apollo partners
We:
- Are a collaborative team of smart and ambitious people who are dedicated to serving our customers.
- Make magic happen to solve hard problems and always come with solutions when challenges arise.
- Are comfortable taking risks that can result in radical scale, and understand that failures are opportunities to learn and improve.
- Are considerate listeners and take the time to deeply understand and seek out ideas from the people around us, even when we disagree.
- Offer a dynamic environment that fosters talent, collaboration and growth.
- Take pride in our work and share the responsibility to see it through from conception to deployment.
- Back up our talk with a competitive compensation and benefits package and challenging projects.
- Value autonomy, honesty, transparency, and respect.
- Are excited to hear from you!
