Fertigation Senior Supervisor

Role Purpose

Responsible for the planning, organizing and supervising irrigation, fertigation, and climate management activities in the farm to ensure that all delivered rooted and unrooted cuttings have the required nutrient levels that guarantee good inner quality at the customers.

Key Responsibilities

1.Health Safety & Environment

• Carry out risk assessment for  the working environment of your team, recommend corrective measures and timely take action to ensure everybody works safely in the department.
• Make sure that all employees undertaking activities that require Permit to Work (PTW), sign the form before doing so. All employees must be trained on the required safety measures
• Ensure KECU retains the KFC certificate for GLOBAL-GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) in the annual internal audit by training all employees as required; by keeping accurate records and by uploading all relevant reports onto the KFC portal.
• Ensure the environment is well kept in and around the PUMP HOUSES and any other area your team members work.

2. Phyto-sanitary:

• Strictly enforce all the sanitation rules and regulations in all the working areas.
• Ensure all staff in the department attend Phyto-training and sensitization sessions organized by the Phyto department.

3. Fertigation and Climate Management

• In consultation with the production manager, prepare daily feeding program, considering the crop species, crop developing stage, the feeding report of the previous days, and the prevailing climatic condition. Make sure that only approved fertilizer recipe is used.
• Strictly supervise and ensure that fertilizer salts/elements are accurately measured and properly mixed in the correct stock tanks according to the instruction in the recipe.
• Follow up and ensure that the programmed fertilizer solution EC, pH and volumes are realized in the field by measuring the drain and drip samples after every feeding.
• Periodically (possibly daily) monitor the crop performance, identify any nutritional problem if any, and develop a sustainable mitigation measure if necessary.
• Regularly monitor the nutrients values in the plant tissue by sending the tissue, drip solution and drain solution samples to any approved plant nutrients laboratory testing lab for analysis and in consultation with the production manager take the corrective measures whenever necessary.
• Ensure smooth running of the pump houses by developing and strictly adhering to approved maintenance schedule for each equipment [UV, Chlorinators, Pipes, Mixers, Stock tanks, Water Silos, Filters, ECA water system, RO system].
• Check and ensure the climate management system (Sigrow Climate Management System) is operating optimally and maintained accordingly.
• Closely monitor the fertilizer stock levels and inform the production manager in case the quantity of any fertilizer falls below the required minimum.
• Carry out a graphical analysis of sample results, compare with the ETCU samples and make a clear comparison to easily see deviations. Send the analysis results to all stake holders.
• Share results of tank ratios and monitor the injector performance.

4.Technical operations:

• You will carry out all the technical jobs in the department
• You will foster teamwork with MTN department.
• You will render support to all Research and Development projects

5. Labor Management:

• Responsible for managing and controlling the labour assigned to you efficiently by ensuring the set targets for each assigned activity are achieved.
•  Responsible for maintaining discipline in the department and handling any disciplinary cases arising in liaison with the HR dept.
• Overall responsible for signing and keeping accurate attendance records of all staff in the dept.
• Responsible for signing requisition of tools, PPEs and equipment required by your staff.

Syngenta is a Global Agribusiness Company with its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. We are a market leader in the breeding and production of Seeds and Cuttings for high-quality pot and bedding plants. In Kenya, we have two production Sites; Kenya Cuttings Limited based in Thika, and Pollen Limited based in Ruiru

Education and Experience:

• B. Sc. In Horticulture; Agriculture /Agricultural Engineering; Diploma in Agricultural Engineering/ Agriculture
• 3 years in a similar job in an agricultural set up.

Critical Knowledge:

• Knowledge of growing Poinsettias and Geraniums crops.
• Crop nutrition and growing conditions (climate)
• Machine handling skills
• Irrigation/fertigation management

Critical Skills:

• Supervisory skills
• Analytical skills
• Organizational skills
• Computer skills

Critical Experience:

• Supervision and training
• Maintenance, servicing and repair of Irrigation/Fertigation equipment.
• Fertigation in Geranium and poinsettias crops

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

• HSE Observations
• Dry bags monitoring
• Daily crop feeding report submission and accuracy
• Tank A&B report
• EC and pH monitoring data before planting
• Drip/Drain weekly report
• Biweekly samples submission to CNL

Essential Syngenta Competencies

Customer-focused - Ensure that the plants are grown and fed under the right conditions to ensure quality of the products to satisfy the customer requirements.

Innovative - Challenge and improve the current way of doings things in your area of responsibility to increase efficiency.

Decisive - Demonstrate ability to take prudent action with little oversight.

Communicative - Demonstrates openness in communication to others, able to communicate to general workers in a language they can understand, listens well and incorporates the thoughts and ideas of others.

Trusted - Track record for building trust and reliability to deliver required products.

Team-oriented - Ability to work in a team of other growers and other personnel, providing support.

Results-oriented - Ability to deliver products in defined quantities, quality time and cost.

Other behaviors critical for the role.

• Ability to work under pressure.
• Understanding and able to handle workers on a lower level.
• Integrity.

 Critical Success Factors and Key Challenges.

• Proper labor organization, training and supervision
• Achievement of timely maintenance, servicing and repair of equipment.
• Prescribed nutrient levels in Fertilizer solution and plant tissues.