Agricultural Economist

Job Summary:

AACS Consulting is looking for an experienced Agricultural Economist. The incumbent is expected to have at least 5 years of experience in the financial and economic evaluation of agricultural investments. Preference will be accorded to those candidates who are familiar with the horticulture industry who can substantiate experience in assessing investments in production of horticultural crops (both annual and perennial) as well as in the associated grading, packing, and processing of horticultural products. S/he will be responsible for the following duties:

Skills Required:

Requires travel to provinces:

Skills Description:

Duties & Responsibilities:

The deliverables of the editorial services sought include the following:

Å   Review available value chain studies undertaken in Afghanistan, prepare

Å   commodity market investigations and analyses for potential horticultural value

Å      chains to assist in identifying the most promising areas for investment; projects within the horticulture sector in Afghanistan such as the Horticulture Value Chain Development Sector Project, and the National Horticulture and Livestock Project;

Å      Review the list of eligible on-farm investments and based on the review of available information sources prepare typical data collection requirements to be used in the financial and economic analyses for each type of subproject;

Å      Undertake a technical review of all subproject feasibility studies (SIRs) prepared by the CPMO and/or PIUs. This review shall;

• o  Include field inspections of the proposed sites;
• o  Pay special attention to minimizing any disturbance to the natural environment and mitigating and corrective measures as appropriate;
• o  Review the practicality of storage implications for the investment to confirm that capacity of the storage area is consistent with planned sales patterns/product movement;
• o  Ensure that financial assessments of investment are completed in both financial and economic terms and that (through cash flow analysis), the subproject investor has access to adequate resources to finance the purchase of incremental raw material through the facility;
• o  Ensure that designs take account of security arrangements and access to external public infrastructure and services; and
• o  Provide written comments and recommendations to the CPMO on each subproject reviewed detailing any changes or modifications to the technical design.

Å      Assist the monitoring and evaluation specialist in designing a baseline survey to capture the base case scenarios of agribusiness enterprise (ABE) subprojects (including the affiliated farmers) and identify verifiable indicators that can be used to measure the success of the investment;

Å      Train PMU and PIU regional staff in the methods used for data collection and in interviewing subproject proponents to collect the necessary information;

Å      Train the PMU and PIU staff in the procedures needed to carry out an economic and financial analysis in accordance with ADB requirements detailed above;

Å      Support the evaluation committee in their review of SIRs for eligible subproject from the economic and financial aspects of the report;

Å      Provide support to PMU staff as they prepare the respective SIPs that are presented for consideration as outlined herein;

Å      Assist in the preparation and review of prepared SIPs for consideration by MAIL Subproject Evaluation Committee; and

Å      Other duties reasonable assigned by the Consultant team leader.

Job Location:

Qualifications:

Å   University Degree in agricultural economics with minimum 5 years of work experience; higher level qualifications are desirable.

Job Keywords: