DEADLINE:31ST MAY, 2022
ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL SEED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
SYNOPSIS OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
| Solicitation Reference No. | RFP/073/SEED/2022 |
| Title of Solicitation | Seed Information Management System |
| Work Stream | Seed System |
| Issuing Office & Address | Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)Website: www.agra.org |
| Point of contact for clarifications, questions and submission of Proposals | AGRA General Procurement, Procurement@agra.org |
| Location of the assignment | Nigeria |
| Confirmation of interest in this consultancy | Interested consultants/bidders are requested to register on the link below by close of business, May 23, 2022, 12:00PM East African Time. Any additional communication will be shared with those that will have registered on the link below. For Registration Link click: HERE |
| Deadline for submission questions and clarifications | May 23, 2022 12:00PM East African Time |
| Deadline for Answering questions and clarifications | May 25, 2022 5:00PM, East African Time |
| Deadline for Submission of Proposals | May 31, 2022 12:00PM East African Time Please include “RFP/073/SEED/2022” on the subject line in the email |
| Type of consultant | Consultancy Firm |
| Anticipated Award Type | CONSULTANCY AGREEMENT |
| Procurement Method | Quality Based Selection (QBS) |
| Evaluation Criteria | Mandatory Eligibility Requirements: (a) Company profile. (b) Trading license or Certificate of incorporation or Certificate of Registration (c) Valid tax clearance certificate (Applicable to firms originating from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique). (d) List of clients /reference letters of similar work carried out. (e) CVs of key personnel. Evaluation Criteria (a) Organizational Capacity ……………………………….20% (b) Experience in similar assignments……………….……..25% (c) Proposed approach, methodology and work plan………..25% (d) Experience and qualifications of key personnel ………….30% Total:………………………………………………………….100% NB. 1. Minimum technical pass mark for technical evaluation is 75% 2. AGRA will negotiate with the firm that attains the best technical score |
Terms of Reference
Seed Information Management System
(1) Background
A vibrant seed industry is key to ensuring agricultural productivity. A well-developed policy and regulatory framework will be critical to guarantee a functioning seed system that ensures farmers access to affordable, available, and appropriate quality seed. Globally, there is strong historical evidence that biological innovations embodied in seeds were the prime catalysts behind growth in crop yields and agricultural total factor productivity (Fernandez-Cornejo, 2004; Evenson and Gollin, 2003).
The Nigeria Seed Council Act (2019) and the Plant Variety Protection Act (2021) are the primary legal instruments to date that provide the instruments for management and control of seed sector in Nigeria. The laws define institutional mandates, including issues around seed import and export, plant variety protection act, decentralization of quality assurance services and seed inspectorate services and variety release. However, there are still gaps and implementation challenges, due to the absence of complementary regulations that support the implementation of the new laws. For instance, while there is now a Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act (2021) in place, the regulation still needs operational procedures and guidelines to be developed for the various component of the PVP system that will make acceptance and granting of rights visible and seamless for the PVP Office staffs and the intending applicants from anywhere in the world.
The effectiveness of the policy instruments in governing the sector and providing the necessary incentives across various stakeholders depends on the enactment of complementary regulations, guidelines, and procedures to define implementation modalities, outline the roles and responsibilities of different actors, and strengthen the capacity of enforcement agencies.
AGRA therefore seeks to engage a consultant to help the organization and its partners in addressing the critical gaps in the policy, legal and regulatory environment, which affect the full implementation and operationalization of the new policy instruments. Some of the gaps include lack of enforcement of the NASC Act and no clear regulations on their activities around the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC). These challenges have been identified as some of the critical gaps affecting the availability, affordability, and accessibility of seed to the farmers and were identified during the SeedSAT assessments in March 2021.
This work builds on the key recommendations emanating from these assessments and will seek to facilitate the operationalization of the and implementation of Nigeria Seed Council Act (2019?) and PVP Act (2021?) through supporting complementary regulations, guidelines, and procedures. While work has begun in certain areas, additional efforts are needed to help provide clarity on how specific provisions of the NASC Act will be implemented. It is also necessary to further develop procedures and guidelines which will further help bring the regulatory provisions down to the level of the common stakeholders and farmers who are beneficiaries of these national laws.
This equally applies for the PVP Act for which an umbrella regulation has been developed but this has to be complemented with procedures and guidelines that will give clarity on how and who and where DUS Test will be conducted, the possibility of accepting DUS Test reports from other UPOV Member countries or how institutions can be contracted to conduct DUS Test for the Nigeria PVP Office in line with best practices
(2) Objectives of the assignment
The overall objective of this assignment is to:
(1) Develop and implement a scalable online agricultural research information system that meets stakeholders’ requirements
(2) Develop a Seed Information Management System and Seed Traceability System (STS) and integrate it with the existing online agricultural information system.
(3) Scope of Work/ User requirements
The scope will entail:
(1) Undertake a feasibility study to establish the digitization status of the seed sector in Nigeria
(2) Develop a Seed Information Management System to support seed planning, including information availability & exchange
(3) Design and implement an online Information Management System to enable sourcing, accessing, and supplying of information, including documentation, procedures for access, seed allocation plans, seed history, volumes, variety catalogs, announcements, tenders for seed, FAQ, and requests.
(4) Develop an integrated subsystem with relevant information for use by NASC stakeholders
(5) Take inventory of NASC’s EGS seed with a focus on develop updates on variety release, status of commercialization, Agro-dealer or VBA outlets, and farmer feedback
(6) Guided by the seed inventory, design, and pilot an online seed traceability system that will track EGS and Certified seed along the production and supply chain.
(7) Ensure that all relevant documents related to seed production and certification, and EGS quality control, annual seed plans, variety access agreements in the NASC institutes and secretariat are digitized and entered into the e- repository subsystem.
(8) Provide system documentation and advise on upgrade, user manual to support implementation and use of the system
(9) Develop relevant on-line data collection tools for future and real-time information updates
(10) Commissioning and training of trainers and technical staff on how to use and operate the system to satisfy stakeholders’ information needs
(11) Provide technical specifications for seed traceability equipment compatible with the requirements of NASC and stakeholders
(12) Provide a roadmap for developing and implementing upgrades and additional subsystems that may be required.
(13) Develop a business plan including costing for a sustainable and functional system
(14) Deliverables
The Consultant is expected to deliver the following:
(1) Submit an inception report containing the agreed system design points, the approach, and the plan to pilot the system.
(2) Create a digital inventory of enlisted new popular (<10yers) varieties and EGS seed developed and under NASC management dating to not more than 10 years back.
(3) Design, develop and pilot an online seed database and a visualization tool for EGS seed traceability using appropriate technology
(4) Digitize, index, and create metadata of database/System as guided by the NASC technical team.
(5) Develop database entities and attributes for all the identified Information areas and the level of detail that corresponds to NASC Seed Information Management System needs.
(6) Produce a conceptual data model design that reflects the structure of information to be held in the system.
(7) Produce a physical data model design that reflects the structure of information held in the system, the software used in the system, databases, and network infrastructure components, taking into account the optimal performance of the system and the necessary storage needs.
(8) Design and development of seed traceability system
(9) Train a selected team on database management and maintenance
(10) Submission of the draft report
(11) Submission of the final/ project completion report
(12) Provision of Software ownership
All deliverables should be succinct but informative, and key points should be easily understandable to a wide range of AGRA teams. Deliverables should be submitted in English.
(5) Proposed Timetable and Duration of the Assignment
The assignment is estimated to take 6-calendar month period estimated to commence in June 2022 to complete activities described above.
No Activities Deliverables Outputs Timelines 1 Submit an inception report containing the agreed system design points, the approach, and the plan to pilot the system. Gantt charts that show all proposed project activities. A project plan including a risk management plan, communication plan, quality plan, change plan, configuration management plan, Planning methodologies; Milestones; Task conflicts and interdependencies; Estimated time frame for each task identified.
Scope of Work; Overall estimated time frame from project start to completion for Contractor and NASC activities, including strategies to avoid schedule slippage.Inception report Two weeks 2 Create a digital inventory of enlisted new popular (<10yers) varieties and EGS seed developed and under NASC management dating to not more than 10 years back. Presentation of the seed inventory database to NASC top management and key stakeholders. An Inventory of NASC’s EGS seed and other types of seed that will feed into the seed database. Four weeks 3 Design, develop and pilot an online seed database and a visualization tool for EGS seed traceability using appropriate technology Presentation of the seed database and traceability tool to NASC top management and key stakeholders. A database system and a visualization tool for foundation seed traceability based on appropriate technology. 12 weeks Recommendations on the appropriate technology for recording data 4 Digitize, index, and create metadata of database/System as guided by the NASC technical team. Presentation of digitized and classified information provided. Real-time e-repository of NASC seed information. 14 weeks 5 Develop database entities and attributes for all the identified Information areas and the level of detail that corresponds to NASC Seed Information Management System needs. Presentation of the entities and attributes for the required Information areas to NASC top management and key stakeholders. Entity-Relationship diagram for all the identified Information areas. 6 Produce a conceptual data model design that reflects the structure of information to be held in the system. Presentation of the final conceptual design to NASC top management and key stakeholders. Conceptual model design (3) weeks after the Entity-Relationship diagram is submitted 7 Produce a physical data model design that reflects the structure of information held in the system, the software used in the system, databases, and network infrastructure components, taking into account the optimal performance of the system and the necessary storage needs. Potential solutions, including identifying alternatives for evaluation in addition to those suggested NASC
A detailed operational concept of the interaction of the system, the user, and the environment that satisfies the operational need.
Key design issues that must be resolved to support the successful development of the system;Physical design (Holistic end to end view) of the support system showing how the different modules that are essential to system functional requirements have been integrated. 9 Design and development of seed traceability system Pre-testing, validation, and commissioning of the developed system seed traceability information platform 14 weeks after the Inception report 10 Train a selected team on database management and maintenance Field teams trained in system utilization, database management, and maintenance. Training report One week End-user and source code manuals 11 Submission of the draft report Oral Presentation of the draft report. Draft project completion report Within one (1) week after training 12 Submission of the final/ project completion report Presentation of the final report including systems operations and maintenance for two years A master copy of the final report is suitable for reproduction Within three (3) weeks after the system’s design Soft copies of the final report. 14 Provision of Software ownership Two copies of the source code (preferably commented code) including all listing of the lines of programming and any custom-developed code for the system for each version of the software on virus-free magnetic media, compiled and ready to be read by a computer. A complete copy of the executable code including table structures, data structures, system tables, and data. A golden master of the software. Build scripts, and any configuration files separate from the build scripts;
Object libraries, Application Program Interfaces (APIs);
Compilation instructions in written format or recorded on video format.
Complete documentation on all aspects of the system, including design documentation, technical documentation, and user documentation;Certificate of Acceptance and System Ownership Within three (3) weeks after system design
On top of these software and support materials, the Consultancy firm is expected to deliver the following as per the reporting schedule:
(1) Inception Report – the Consultant shall produce an Inception Report within 7 days after the contract is signed. The report shall provide a clear picture of how the Consultant understands the ToRs and intends to achieve the expected tasks. It shall highlight the proposed methodology and the work plan with timelines for all the tasks that the Consultant will undertake during the assignment.
(2) Requirements Specification Report – the Consultant shall present a report detailing the requirements of the system and a prototype model for internal review within 14 working days after commencement of the assignment and consultations with designated AGRA staff. The report shall be presented for validation and incorporate feedback and comments from the discussions reflected in a workflow configuration.
(3) User and System Documentation – upon completion of system development and project specific development work, the Consultancy firm shall provide a step-by-step guidance on the system use and a comprehensive training manual for managing front and back-end of the system.
(4) Audit Trail Report – easy to generate a detailed tracker of all data and system changes within the system for user-defined retention periods.
(5) Completion Report – upon completion of the assignment, the Consultant shall submit a final completion report. The report shall outline all web development work undertaken, including characteristics of the system developed. Any follow-ups and/or recommendations shall also be included in the report
(6) Location and nature of the assignment
The assignment is regional and should be carried out as per the schedule above, the consultant is required to periodically check in with AGRA team in Kenya and Nigeria.
(7) Reporting arrangements
The consultancy team shall report to the Head of Seed Research and Systems, and Country Manager in Nigeria.
(8) Copyright
All materials / documents arising out of this consultancy work shall remain the property of AGRA.
(9) Firms Qualifications and Experience Required
The assignment will be carried out by a consulting firm that has expertise in agriculture, seed regulation and seed system. Successful firm must present a team that demonstrate the key expertise shared below:
(1) Project Manager
- A minimum of four (4) years of project management experience, within the last ten (10) years, in government or the private sector.
- A PhD in Computer Sciences or Information Systems or related field and at least five years of relevant experience (leader).
- A minimum of three (3) years of experience, within the last ten (10) years, managing systems architecture and development projects.
- Completed at least one (1) project within the past three (3) years that involved designing business processes and procedures and developing new systems to support the new business processes.
- Must have completed at least one (1) project within the past three (3) years that involved communication and coordination of activities with external stakeholders.
- Must have experience processing space data
- Must have experience in data science and modeling using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms
(2) Technical Lead
- BSc in Computer Science or Engineering
- A minimum of four (4) years of experience in systems development, design, and programming of automated systems.
- A minimum of four (4) years of experience developing systems using relational databases.
- A minimum of two (2) years of experience developing Internet applications.
- A minimum of two (2) years of experience managing systems architecture and systems development projects.
- Completed at least (1) project within the past three (3) years that involved conducting a pilot implementation and determining the readiness of the system production
(3) Programmer/Software Engineer (At least two recommended)
- A Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or other related fields
- A demonstrated track record of at least four years of programming experience in the design, development, testing, and roll-out of complex software systems and applications. The projects should have involved significant software customization and integration with other external systems
- Advanced programming techniques, application, and systems design using at least three (3) programming languages for a minimum of three (3) years.
- Adequate knowledge of distributed systems architecture, relational database systems, middleware, Object-Oriented Programming, web-services/SOA, web and mobile application development, including a good understanding of software development methodologies and techniques.
- An in depth understanding of how web and mobile applications work including security, session management, and best development practices.
(10) Evaluation Criteria
Interested firms shall be evaluated against the following technical criteria:
(1) Organizational Capacity……………………………………………20%
Consulting firm profile, staffing, geographical presence, list of clients, company accreditations and certifications.
(2) Similar Experience……………………………………………………25%
(1) Have over 10 years of experience in software and online system design and implementation
(2) Similar experience in designing online database
(3) Similar experience in digitization and automation of processes
(4) Experience in working with government agencies, private sector and development partners is an added advantage General experience in related services or projects.
(5) List of current and past clients and their contact details.
(3) Proposed approach, methodology and work plan………………….25%
Understanding of the project/assignment requirements, practicality of the proposed methodology relative to the context of the assignment, proposed work plan, staffing schedule, risk assessment and mitigation strategies integrated into the assignment, planning, appropriateness of the implementation schedule to the project timelines and project quality assurance measures.
(4) Experience and Qualification of key personnel………………………30%
(1) Team Leader (10%)
(2) Project Manager (5%)
(3) Technical Lead (5%)
(4) Programmer/ Software Engineer (at least 2) (10%)
Total Score………………………………………………………………..100%
NB: Selection Method – Quality Based Selection (QBS)
(11) Application Submission Requirements
(1) Technical Proposal
(1) Firms’ registration documents Company profile, Certifications, and accreditations.
(2) Proposed Methodology, approach and workplan with clear timelines.
(3) Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out.
(4) Proposed key staff, their roles including their CVs, academic and professional certificates.
(5) The technical proposal shall not exceed 20 pages. CVs and copies of academic certificates may be attached as annexes.
(2) Financial Proposal
(1) The firm shall provide a financial proposal for carrying out the assignment. The breakdown of unit and total fees per person (for each proposed consultant) shall be provided. Use the templates provided under Annexes A, B and C for the financial proposal.
(2) Reimbursable costs if applicable shall be quoted separately. These will be reimbursed based on actual cost incurred.
(3) Professional Fee quoted shall include all applicable Withholding TAX.
(4) VAT shall be quoted separately and is only applicable to firms registered in the following countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Mozambique).
(5) If the financial proposal is silent on taxes, AGRA shall assume that these are inclusive.
(6) Prices must be quoted in USD ($). Contracting and Payment will be made in USD and bidders are encouraged to have a USD bank accounts
(7) The financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected.
(12) Guidelines for Preparations and Submission of Proposals
(1) The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.
(2) The proposals SHALL be submitted to procurement@agra.org by the deadline indicated in the synopsis.
(3) The technical proposal shall not exceed 20 pages.
(4) The proposal and ALL Attachments submitted via email SHALL NOT exceed 10MB.
(5) VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for a period of 90 days from the date of bid closure.
(6) Financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected. The password shall be requested from firms that meet the minimum technical score of 75%
