Nursery Executive

Job Title: Nursery Executive

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Jharkhand and Telangana

Expected Joining Date: Immediately

Education: Bachelor’s / master’s degree in forestry/Botany/Horticulture (Preferred)

Experience: Minimum 3+ years’ experience in handling nursery (preferably bamboo nursery) and nursery techniques

About Industree Foundation

Established in 2000, Industree Foundation holistically tackles the root causes of poverty by creating an ownership-based, organized, creative manufacturing ecosystem for micro-entrepreneurs. Industree works with a vision to co-create an ecosystem with farmers, artisans, and stakeholders, creating a new way of building sustainable enterprises and work culture.  Industree Foundation’s comprehensive approach helps communities assess their traditional skill base, organize them into production units, develop products that appeal to modern markets, and create consistent demand to create sustainable businesses at the lowest possible costs. Our approach has tripled the incomes of artisans in non-farm occupations by leveraging their artisanal skills and integrating them into the creative industries sector. The Foundation believes that if people experiencing poverty have access to sustained and consistent demand for their products and services and are provided with an enabling ecosystem, they can integrate into the formal economy and lift themselves out of poverty.  We have reached 30,000 women artisans across India and Africa through collaborative efforts with organizations like The Future group, IKEA, The Commonwealth Secretariat, Grassroots Business Fund, and National Skill Development Corporation. You can read more about its work at www.industree.org.in. 

The Regenerative Agriculture and Livelihoods (REAL) Fund is a ~$15Mn blended finance facility that aims to create an environmentally and financially scalable model of bamboo value chains focusing on women-led empowerment. This includes sustainable bamboo plantation, the creation of value-added products, and sales via collectives of 10,500 farmers (men and women) and 800 producers (women) in rural Maharashtra, who together own and manage the entire value chain.

The project has been catalyzed with the following key objectives:

• Establish farmer-producer organizations & women-producer-owned enterprises to manage bamboo farming & value-added production. 
• Deliver training to enable sustainable land management, efficient production, modern design & self-sustainable enterprises. 
• Raise capital via an innovative finance mechanism to equip farmers & creative producers with seed, acceleration & working capital.

About the Position

The position is expected to oversee and improve the functions of the bamboo nursery on a day-to-day basis. Work closely with skilled laborers to maintain and manage the nursery operations. Assist the Nursery Manager with the hiring and training of nursery staff.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Growing and maintaining bamboo planting stock to maintain a healthy nursery ecosystem and ensure the success of the vision and mission. 
• Implementation of regenerative processes
• Work closely with the nursery's workforce and provide technical support to the nursery laborers. 
• Planning and Monitoring of various Nursery operations
• Facilitating and monitoring nursery staff for nursery management

Expected Competencies

SoftSkills –

• Strong communication and persuasion skills
• Able to foresee and prevent problems from occurring
• Able to take 100% accountability for failures and is driven by inner faith to improve self, systems, or processes at work.
• Able to unlearn the past and learn from the present.
• Displays a sense of ownership and aspires to exceed work expectations.
• Displays critical thinking, logical reasoning, and problem-solving skills

Technical skills

• Taxonomic expertise in identifying bamboo and related species
• Know the plant distribution knowledge
• Plant germination skills
• Rhizome multiplication skills
• Grafting skills
• Growth promoting skills
• Fertigation knowledge
• Other expected skills - Procurement, Merchandising, Inventory Control

The candidate is expected to meet the following physical fitness requirements:

• The ability to stand on feet for 5 to 10 hours per day.
• The ability to stoop and bend repeatedly for several hours.
• The ability to work outdoors in both cold and warm temperatures.

Computer Skills -

• Proficient in Excel/word/ppt

Communication -

• Read/Write/Speaking Marathi and Hindi (Preferred);
• Read/Write/Speaking English (MUST).
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Good negotiation and problem-solving skills.

Deliverables

• Monitoring of nursery operations and ensuring maximum survivability of saplings
• Timely delivery of technical skills to nursery caretakers and laborers
• Plan and execution of nursery bed preparation, potting mixtures, polybag filling
• Execution of pre-germination treatments and propagation of different bamboo species to attain the highest germination percentage
• Efficient execution of day-to-day activities and maintenance of records