AGRA is a proudly African-led institution focused on scaling agricultural innovations that help smallholder farmers towards increased incomes, better livelihoods, and improved food security. We understand that African farmers need uniquely African solutions to the environmental and agricultural challenges they face, enabling them to sustainably boost production and gain access to rapidly growing agricultural markets. In short, AGRA’s mission is to transform the lives of smallholder farmers from that of a solitary struggle for survival to a business that thrives.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
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Job Title: Research Assistant Intern
Location: Abuja (FCT)
Role Summary
- The Research Assistant Intern will support the AgriNova Africa pilot in Nigeria by collecting, organizing, validating, and synthesizing country-level evidence required to design and prepare the 12-month pilot.
- The assignment will focus on young farmers, their digital behaviours and agricultural needs, existing digital agricultural services and platforms, relevant ecosystem stakeholders, and opportunities to integrate or connect existing services rather than build a new standalone platform.
- This role is particularly important during the inception and co-design period, when country-specific evidence will inform target youth segments, priority locations and value chains, farmer journeys and use cases, digital service gaps, potential partners, and the design of the Youth AI Advisory Champion model.
- The Research Assistant / Intern will work under technical supervision of the AgriNova Africa Project Team and is expected to produce concise, well-organized evidence that can be used directly in project design and decision-making.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
- Conduct desk and field research on the country’s agricultural, youth, extension, and digital agriculture ecosystem using credible and relevant sources.
- Support profiling of target young farmer segments, including age, gender and inclusion considerations, farm characteristics, value chains, geography and digital maturity.
- Collect evidence on agricultural decisions and challenges faced by young farmers across the production and market journey, identifying where digital or human advisory support is needed.
- Identify and map existing digital agricultural services and platforms relevant to young farmers, including advisory, climate, agronomy, market, finance, input, mechanization, insurance and related services.
- Document available evidence on platform reach, youth adoption, effectiveness, sustainability and potential interoperability or integration opportunities, including APIs or open interfaces where information is available.
- Identify barriers that may prevent young farmers from using existing services, including awareness, trust, cost, connectivity, language, usability, digital literacy, fragmentation and relevance.
- Support stakeholder and partner mapping covering government, extension providers, farmer organizations, technology providers, research institutions, telecoms, financial institutions and other relevant ecosystem actors.
- Conduct and document key informant interviews, consultations or other primary data collection activities as agreed with the project team.
- Support mapping of priority youth farmer journeys and use cases, including potential roles of AI-enabled services, digital channels and human extension/advisory support.
- Compile, clean and organize research data, interview records, source documents, platform inventories, stakeholder lists and evidence trackers using appropriate digital tools.
- Synthesize findings into concise country context briefs, evidence tables, gap analyses, ecosystem maps and presentations to support AgriNova Africa design decisions.
- Participate in project meetings and provide regular progress updates, flagging data gaps, risks or emerging findings requiring attention.
- Perform other related duties required to support AgriNova Africa inception, country research and pilot preparation activities.
Key Measures of Performance
The performance of this role holder will be assessed based on the achievements made in:
- Quality, completeness and reliability of country-level research and evidence collected.
- Timeliness of data collection, stakeholder engagement, documentation and agreed deliverables.
- Quality of mapping and analysis of existing digital agricultural services, platforms and ecosystem actors.
- Clarity and usefulness of findings on young farmers’ needs, digital behaviours, journeys and priority use cases.
- Accuracy and organization of datasets, trackers, interview notes, source records and evidence packs.
- Responsiveness to supervisor requests, ability to work independently, and adherence to agreed timelines.
Required Academic and Professional Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree, final-year undergraduate qualification, or recent graduate in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Development Studies, Economics, Business, Information/ICT, Social Sciences, Research Methods, or a related field.
- Demonstrated interest or exposure to agriculture, agricultural extension, digital agriculture, youth in agriculture, technology, development programs, or related areas.
- Some experience in research, data collection, surveys, interviews, field studies, desk research, ecosystem mapping, or similar analytical assignments is highly desirable.
- Good analytical, information synthesis, and problem-solving skills, with strong attention to detail.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word and Excel, and familiarity with Google Workspace or equivalent tools.
- Familiarity with digital data-collection tools such as KoboToolbox, ODK, SurveyCTO, or Google Forms is an advantage.
- Good written and verbal communication skills and ability to engage professionally with different stakeholders.
- Ability to work independently, manage multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and maintain accurate records.
- For the country assignment, ability to work from or travel within relevant pilot locations is desirable; knowledge of relevant local languages is an advantage.
- Commitment to AGRA’s mission and core values.
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
