Graduate Trainee - Savannah Seritech’s SILK program

On completion of the internship period (3 months) to a sufficient standard, there is the opportunity for employment for successful candidates in the Savannah Seritech operations team. Both the internship and the role are based in Roo, Sindo, Homa Bay County.

Candidates should be willing to relocate here fulltime

Roles & Responsibilities:

Data collection and optimization:

• Work directly in the field with sericulture teams optimizing data collection ensuring high levels of accuracy.
• Manage diverse sericulture projects, ensuring timely delivery, monitoring project performance and implementing corrective actions where needed.

Data Analysis and Reporting:

• Data Analysis – Leverage advanced Excel skills and other analytical tools to meticulously analyse sericulture data, extracting valuable insights to inform decision-making.
• Insightful Reporting – Generate comprehensive and insightful reports that clearly communicate silkworm rearing performance, trends, and key metrics. Ensure reports are actionable and provide strategic recommendations to drive efficiency.
• Effective Communication – Present findings and strategic recommendations to senior management in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. Tailor presentations to address key concerns and highlight areas of improvement, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Trend and Performance Analysis – Conduct in-depth analysis of data to uncover trends, and identify areas for improvement.

Skills and qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture or a related field.

• Experience in agriculture, production industry or operations is required

• Experience with handling plants and livestock

• Strong analytical skills and ability to work with complex data sets.

• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills

• Strong communication, interpersonal skills and team working skills.

• Pro-activeness and ability to work independently without supervision.

• Willingness to work in the field and get dirty.

Benefit:
• Visibility into Kenya’s first smallholder-focused commercial sericulture platform.

• Ideal for a candidate looking to dive into a mission-oriented organization.

• The team is committed to the candidate’s success and will provide coaching, mentorship, and unique exposure to people and experiences that come from the most successful leaders in the entrepreneurial community and the social sector.

About Savannah Seritech

We are pioneering a first-of-its-kind sustainable seritech (silk production) platform, fostering a 5x increase in income for farmers.

In our central location, we will hatch and rear the silkworms in a controller environment past their most vulnerable stage. We then pass on these so-called Disease-Free Larvae (DFLs) to our network of seritech centers of excellence in strategic locations across Kenya. The centers will provide tech-enabled startup kits and DFLs to enable partner farmers to hit the ground running, reaching profitability in 30 days. We will buy back cocoons from farmers upon harvest to sell onto the global market, providing smallholders global market access. 

This venture is being built by Pyramidia Ventures, where we heavily leverage our proven track record in scaling up agtech ventures, running a biomass production process at scale from hatchery to final product (Victory Farms) and working with smallholders (Stable Foods) to achieve rapid and successful outcomes. 

The impact: A regenerative platform providing equitable rural employment opportunities

• Equitable livelihoods: In sericulture, one acre can provide up to 5 jobs, mostly in rural areas. With primary producers receiving >50% of the final value, this is an equitable value chain. 
• Regenerative & circular: The mulberry tree feedstock will involve planting 100 million trees, absorbing 500 MT of CO2 annually, combatting soil erosion and rejuvenating degraded land in low-yield areas. Embracing circularity, we will compost residue from mulberry plants and silkworms for fertilizer and repurpose frass (lava excrement) and pupa as animal feed
• High-value agriculture: When grown for export, silk is four to 10 times more valuable than coffee, tea and vegetables, with a premium price-point for more traceable and sustainable silk.