Job Description

A multinational agricultural company is seeking an Agronomist to be responsible for driving a farmer-centric approach by providing technical expertise and support to optimize crop productivity and farm profitability. The Agronomist will develop strong relationships with farmers and key stakeholders to understand the challenges they face, leading to the delivery of tailored agronomic solutions.
Minimum requirements for the role:

• Must have a Bachelors degree in Agronomy, Horticulture or Agriculture
• Basic CropLife course qualified (or willing to qualify)
• Minimum 2 years experience in account management or managing relationships with large-scale farms (preferred)
• Sound understanding of the South African agricultural landscape, including techno-commercial aspects
• Strong presentation skills with the ability to engage diverse audiences
• Must be an effective communicator across all levels of an organization
• Knowledge of business drivers within arable agriculture is advantageous
• Proven experience in building and maintaining successful business relationships
• Experience of working in agriculture and understanding the crop growing cycle
• Experience of working in and contributing to successful team working
• Proven record of communicating across a wide target audience
• Must have a valid drivers license and be willing to travel locally and abroad

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Using a combination of interpersonal and technical skills to suitably influence and accelerate the purchase of the companys products.
• Successfully implementing agreed marketing campaigns within a specific target area.
• Building, developing, and maintaining an Area Grower Map for the given geographic area, including farm and crop details, grower information, and demographic data housed and maintained on SalesForce.com.
• Exploring and developing biopotential alignment with the iPlan and Crop Atlas data.
• Regularly liaising and aligning with the relevant Key Account Manager (Sales Manager) and Campaign Managers in furtherance of the Sales Key Account Plan.
• Managing an optimum portfolio of key growers and growing the companys market share in the area.
• Facilitating positive influence on the wider grower network, aimed at demand generation and aligned with the implementation of marketing campaigns.
• Regularly coordinating demand generation activity with the local Key Account Manager (Sales Manager) and Technical Leads.
• Managing other key influencers in the area in line with campaign direction, e.g., study groups, large growers, Potato Growers SA, etc.
• Supporting the achievement of sales targets for the defined sales area by influencing grower purchasing decisions.
• Feeding back market intelligence and value chain information to relevant members of the companys team.
• Maintaining good communication and networking across multi-functional business.
• Actively contributing to the regional campaign teams with relevant market information and trends.
• Having full technical knowledge and commercial perspective of the companys and key competitor products and relevant crops.
• Supporting Campaign Leads with the conversion of trial data to sales and marketing messaging.
• Operating within all legal and company policy frameworks.
• Continuously promoting the companys Health, Safety, and Environmental activities by ensuring all operations under direct control comply with HSE policies and guidelines as well as other relevant company or statutory policies.
• Closely aligning with technical personnel of the Channel network on all technical aspects and benefits/ROI of the companys product range.

Please note that subsequent to the screening and shortlisting process, all further communication will be entered into, only with the shortlisted candidates