Sweet Potato Seed Production Specialist

at  Oterra

COMPETENCES:

• Knowledge and/or experience in crops: Seed Production, Development of new varieties, in particular sweet potato is an advantage, and Supply chain
• Manage KPI´s
• Good communication skills
• Agronomy and farm production optimization through irrigation, fertilizer, and quality, and Phytosanitary Best Practices.
• Ability to design agronomic experiments, conduct field project, collect and perform statistic analysis for agricultural sampling, quality monitoring, production cost, and analysis of results and reporting.
• Ability to forecast needs, design and manage projects.
• Ability to manage farm staff and operations in a timely manner.
  OTHERS: Availability to travel in the valleys along the Central Coast of Peru.

MAIN PURPOSE

“Bridges Breeding and Global Sourcing Oterra´s Areas for sweet potato vegetative seed production and validation of new breeds/agronomic practices to optimize performance in farmer’s fields and Oterra´s factory for commercial use by Sourcing”

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1) Produce high-quality vegetative sweet potato seed under greenhouse and open field conditions using rapid multiplication techniques, in coordination with Oterra´s Global Sourcing Team.
2) Deliver high-quality sweet potato rooted mini cuttings to seed growers .
3) Monitor sweet potato nurseries and directly manage Oterra´s nursery, in coordination with Oterra´s Global Sourcing Area.
4) Make continuous forecasts of sweet potato seed production by category: Basic (from greenhouse), Registered (from fields nurseries) and Certified I and II (from commercial fields).
5) Support the statistical design and analysis of variety selection of new sweet potato breeds based on agronomic, multi-location trials, factory performance and color quality in coordination with the factory, and Breeding, Global Sourcing and Applications teams. Develop upscaling plan for new varieties in different regions.
6) Support research on agronomic performance of sweet potato varieties using new technologies, agronomic practices, and/or growing locations.
7) Perform periodical screening of productive and seeding fields to validate and maintain phytosanitary status.
8) Support the Intellectual Property Registration of new Oterra´s sweet potato varieties.
9) Other functions as indicated by the immediate leader.
EDUCATION: Bachelor Degree
CAREER: Agronomist, Industrialist, Statistician or Biologist.
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 2 -5 years
ENGLISH: Basic
MICROSOFT OFFICE: Advanced