CURRICULUM VITAE

NAME

JAMES KITURI

CONTACTS

P.O Box 3260 – 00200, Nairobi, Kenya

CELL

072*******

EMAIL

ad1gky@r.postjobfree.com

GENERAL INFORMATION

QUALIFICATIONS

I have extensive experience in farmer group mobilization, farmer training on Climate smart agricultural practices on crops (horticultural both export and local vegetables, other crops including maize, green grams, cowpeas, pigeon peas, sorghum and millet as well as in livestock production, farm standards (Globalgap, Organic farming,GRASP, SMETA and Fairtrade) and participating in farmer, staff and private service provider training on various aspects of agricultural value chains,, market linkage and proposal development.

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE AND CAREER INTERESTS

I am passionate about development and implemention of Climate Change related programs/projects such as Climate smart agricultural practices, Sustainable agriculture practices and other Good agricultural practice programs. I have considerable practice in Global good agricultural practice (GLOBALGAP) auditing, Setting up quality management systems for groups and training SMEs on food safety, Researches (baseline, mid-term and end of project evaluations), Capacity building (Agro dealers, farmers and Service providers) for food security and agricultural markets, business planning, value chain analysis, implementing Globalgap, GRASP, SMETA and fair trade standard audits.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

1994-1998: Bachelor of Science Horticulture, Egerton University

SHORT TRAINING

Crop protection and Safe use of pesticides, Food hygiene and safety, risk analysis, TOT

skills, Farmer group governance, Internal auditor training - Globalgap IFA Inspector,

Training of trainers program on group dynamics, Hygiene and traceability, Soil Fertility Management and Fertilizer Use, TOT - Entrepreneurship, Farmer group formation and management, Monitoring and Evaluation training and SPSS Data analysis, Organic farming and standards

EXPERIENCE

18years’ experience in agricultural production; working with small scale farmer groups as well as medium scale individual farmers, training them on implementation of Good Agricultural Practices as envisaged in Farm Standards (Global GAP, GRASP, Organic), 4 years’ experienced in community mobilization, capacity building and dissemination of technical information on horticulture and other food security value chains, Worked in various positions with funded organization activities, and M & E, under the USAID projects, implemented by FINTRAC and Global communities (Formally CHF International), Market linkages, Project Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Data collection/Collation, entry and analysis using SPSS. Worked with stakeholders such as relevant county government staff and other value chain actors, field day planning and conducting visitor visits to project sites.

KIMKA H. CONSULTANTS – Associate, Horticulture and Food security Advisor (2015- current)

As leader in Extension service provision promoting Sustainable agriculture practices in all agriculture related assignments, preparing farms/farmers for Globalgap/GRASP Certification, SMETA and Organic farming standards with farmer groups and individual farms, technically setting up companies for entrepreneurs interested venturing into fresh produce export business, Market linkages, and Development of a proper food traceability system in line with Global GAP standard.

USAID/FINTRAC

Projects

Agronomist in Kitui Makueni and Machakos Region Implementing USAID-Kenya Horticulture Development Project (KHDP) – BISEP and Kenya2009 – 2011 and Horticulture competitiveness Project under KEITT Exporters LTD, 2013 - 2014

Brought on board 350 farmer groups carrying out farming activities and water harvesting in Makueni, Kitui and Machakos counties

Farmer trainings on fruits and vegetable production technologies including mango seedling propagation

Strengthened project activities as a technical backstop on all matters regarding production of fodder, drought tolerant crops mostly pulses (green grams, cowpeas and pigeon peas) and local and export fruits and vegetables;

Administrative functions regarding the projects,

Participated in developing project proposals (Partnership funds), for implement ation of activities in Eastern (Kitui, Makueni and Machakos Counties) .

Other farmer training activities included production of Asian vegetable, Rain water harvesting, Market linkages, Mapping out and Identifying production areas and producer groups,

Conducting baseline survey on new client production areas, crop varieties, volumes, sales, incomes and gender employment,,

Provided 302 farmer groups in Eastern with sources of market information, including prices, volumes and market locations as well as training in the use of information to make production decisions;

Development of training manuals, modules and programs for the agronomists. Developed mango baseline survey tools, oversaw the survey, analyzed using SPSS and reported the findings.

Participated in data collection during evaluation of project

Agricultural Officer – CHF International, June 2012 – March, 2013

Program Name: Preserve+ (Protecting and Restoring Economic Sustainability to Ensure Reduced Vulnerability) In Kitui and Tharaka Nithi counties

Responsibilities

Project locations: Kitui County and Tharaka-Nithi County

Proving technical support on the development of agriculture training materials.

Coordinating agriculture training and technical assistance activities being carried out by partners to the organization mainly Africa Harvest, Grain Pro, Agrochemical companies, Ministry of Agriculture: livestock, crops and Home economic departments and Ministry of Health: nutrition department to ensure appropriate and quality training and appropriate distribution of sponsored inputs to target beneficiaries on pre formulated rules of engagement in the form of memorandum of understanding. Training community mobilizers on production

Initiating, monitoring and overseeing kitchen garden activities roll out.

Lead technical advisor for the P4P market linkage program and other efforts to build linkages that help target farmers to increase their market integration, profits and product quality.

Strategic planning of seed fairs, P4P field days, nutrition trainings, TOTs on Nutrition Education and behavior change as well as Community nutrition events whilst ensuring engagement of all the actors in the crops value chains

Recruit and train 3500 farmers in liaison with other partners on DRC production (pulses and grain crops), Training of community mobilizers on agricultural production, train 705 kitchen garden beneficiaries and train on all agronomic requirements of vegetable (local and nutritionally dense) production. Carried out a baseline survey, monitoring and final evaluation of PRESERVE - Plus project

Participated in Monitoring and evaluation of project

Reporting on achievements of projects on weekly and monthly basis

IDESO Prime, Associate Consultant: Horticulture and Food Security department, (2012 to 2022 on and off basis) assignments with MESPT & SOLIDARIDAD East &

Central Africa Expertise Center

Developed three (3) training manuals: One manual on training Private Service Providers on passion fruits and Mango production and another on Training farmer groups on Effective Business Farmer Group Governance,

Trained Private Service Providers on passion fruit production in parts of Kwale County

Developed baseline survey tools, led the team in carrying out survey, processed, analyzed data and prepared the report on African Bird Eye Chilies and general food security in selected counties located in parts of Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu counties

Implemented Globalgap standard with 8 groups based in Makueni and Machakos counties

Agronomist – Various Fresh Produce Exporting companies; 2003 – 2009 namely Avenue Fresh Produce Ltd, Fresh Approach Ltd, East African growers Ltd, Benvar Country Fresh Ltd and Keitt Exporters, Fresh

Responsibilities

Project locations: Makueni, Machakos, Kitui, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Meru, Tharaka Nithi Counties

Agronomic services to both individual and small scale farmers, Recruit and train small scale farmers to grow crops for the company’s markets overseas (French beans, Chilies, Snow peas, Passion fruits, baby corn and Asian vegetables) as well as training and implementing farm standards. Organizing and supervising produce collection centers

On an on and off basis short assignments with - Ambango Fresh Greens, Mula Export, Sonic Fresh, Meru Greens, Jotsen Hortiveges, Amit Farm, Richern farm produce, Oribi Veg, Revival Springs, Freshpak, selection fruits & Afrifresh Horticultures, Origen Fresh, Jamjoy International, Five J vegfruits LTD, September 2013 – 2023

Climate smart agricultural practices, Farm standards (Globalgap/GRASP & Organic farming) implementation, guiding the technical setup of companies as required by regulatory bodies such as KEPHIS, PCPB & HCD

REFEREES

ONESMUS KYULE,

IDESO Prime Ltd, CEO

Phone: 072********,

Email: ad1gky@r.postjobfree.com

DUNCAN WAMBUA,

Oribiveg Ltd,

Phone: 071*******,

Email: ad1gky@r.postjobfree.com

David Ojwang,

Ssctor leader, Agri-Food systems SNV,

Phone: 071*******

Email: ad1gky@r.postjobfree.com

Contact this candidate