DEADLINE: 21ST DECEMBER, 2022
INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (IFPRI)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR BASELINE DATA COLLECTION FOR IMPACT EVALUATION OF THE POD-BORER RESISTANT (PBR) COWPEA TECHNOLOGY IN NIGERIA
Background
The U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) presents an integrated approach to combating the root causes of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Through Feed the Future, partner countries are supported to improve agricultural production and markets and create new opportunities for security and prosperity; strengthen the resilience of communities; reduce hunger and improve nutrition; and increase the exchange of ideas, technologies and products that benefit society. This approach aims to strengthen the capacity of all participants throughout the food and agriculture system, paying special attention to women, the extreme poor, small-scale producers, youth, marginalized communities, and small and medium enterprises. Despite high agricultural potential, Nigeria faces low agricultural productivity and relies on smallholder farming. Feed the Future stimulates growth in key markets by encouraging private sector partnerships, fostering agricultural innovation, and expanding economic opportunities for smallholder farmers.
Investments in agriculture, resilience, and nutrition in Nigeria connect smallholder farmers to finance, agricultural inputs and technologies, extension services and product development, especially for nutritious foods. Biotechnology is one potential tool to address food security challenges in Nigeria and other partner countries. To make the tools of agricultural biotechnology accessible to developing-country partners, the Feed the Future Agricultural Biotechnology for Food Security Project aims to develop and take to scale agricultural biotechnology products that advance GFSS objectives while building the capacity of local innovation- and market-system actors to support biotechnology products throughout their life cycle, while also supporting development of a biotechnology enabling environment in partner countries. Bt cowpea represents one of several supporting activities that help to implement this overarching program purpose.
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Cowpea is one of the most important legume food crops in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it constitutes the major protein source contributing to food security and nutrition. Cowpea is grown on over 4 million hectares in Nigeria by 10.4 million cowpea producing households, 5.4 million of which are classified as small. Maruca vitrata, the legume pod-borer insect, is a major field pest of cowpea across West Africa, causing yield losses of 20-80%. Bt cowpea varieties exhibit resistance to the pod-borer pest, improving yield by 20-100% relative to conventional cowpea (depending on the intensity of insect pressure), and reducing the number of protective insecticide sprays from 6-10 per season to just two. Ex-ante impact assessment estimates this has potential to improve yield and profitability for smallholder farmers, contributing to an estimated $350 million total benefit to consumers and producers in Nigeria.
In support of USAID Evaluation Policy, this impact evaluation will be designed collaboratively with USAID and interagency partners, local actors, host country counterparts, private sector partners, and others, as appropriate, to examine whether and how Bt cowpea interventions advance GFSS goals.
Building on 15 years of prior investment by USAID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Bayer, and other donors, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is advancing biotechnology products through the “Feed the Future Innovative Maize and Cowpea Technologies to Increase Food and Nutrition Security in Africa” activity (2020-2025). Through the Bt cowpea sub-activity, locally adapted genetically engineered (GE) cowpea varieties that are resistant to the Pod Borer insect pest will be advanced to the commercial release and dissemination phase of the product life cycle in Nigeria and subsequently Ghana and Burkina Faso—with the aim of achieving 25% farmer adoption of new Bt Cowpea varieties in Nigeria, generating yield gains of at least 20% for farmers who grow the varieties. To improve technical sustainability of the approach and minimize risk of insect resistance evolving, the activity will promote product stewardship including insect resistance management measures, and a second-generation cowpea product with two (“stacked”) complementary Bt resistance genes will also be advanced from early research to pre-commercialization.
The activity also includes interventions to improve the capacity of partner country innovation and market systems to develop and disseminate biotechnology products that address food security challenges―ultimately enhancing the productivity, resilience, and nutrition of smallholders. Activities engage partner country national breeding programs and the private sector through the development of market-led, commercially sustainable dissemination approaches for GE crops in Africa ― including through royalty-free sub-licensing of GE varieties to local private sector seed companies for sale to local farmers, coupled with accompanying training to build local sub-licensees’ capacity to market, produce, disseminate, and steward GE crop products.
In view of the above, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is seeking to hire a local firm for data collection aimed at providing basis including the benchmark on which to evaluate the direct impacts of Bt cowpea adoption on cowpea yield and productivity changes among farmers in Adamawa and Kwara States in Nigeria; focusing on the overall contribution of Bt cowpea on food security and nutrition challenges in Nigeria by examining its impact on cowpea household consumption per capita, commercial orientation of the farmers, and cowpea production cost and benefits. The successful candidate will carry out in-dept quantitative and qualitative household level data collection using pre-tested instruments in selected local government areas (LGAs) in these identified states.
Task, Responsibilities, and Expectations
The successful firm will be responsible for the following:
- Collect data from 1,400 sampled households across 240 pre-selected communities in eight (8) LGAs in Adamawa and Kwara states, Nigeria
- Acquire all clearances and permissions necessary to collect data in all the locations
- Develop a good field work plan for data collection based on methodology prescribed
- Collect data on yield from subsample of the households using crop cut measure.
- Prepare equipment required for the crop cut as well as trainings and other attributable that are vital for the crop cut component of the assignment.
- Select, hire, and manage competent enumerators for data collection
- Ensure that only selected households are interviewed
- Undertake internal quality control procedures to ensure data collected is comprehensive, consistent, and accurate
- Carry out data quality assurance and conduct back checks of surveys to check answers are valid
- Manage field data collection activities
- Provide field visit report that includes the contextual narrative, interviews, and focus group summary
- Work in line with COVID-19 stipulated guidelines to guide against contributing to its spread
The successful firm is expected to have the following:
- Clearance and permission including certifications necessary to collect data in the identified locations
- Ability to mobilize and engage competent enumerators for data collection in all locations
- Ensure strict adherence to our data protection policy
- Implement data collection using online platforms enabling the field teams to collect and transmit data from field to IFPRI server
Supervision
IFPRI will be responsible for the overall technical oversight of the data to be collected under the stipulated Terms of Reference. In addition, IFPRI will have the following responsibilities:
- Provide survey instruments to be used for data collection;
- Assist in training of enumerators;
- Provide a list of targeted locations (State, LGAs, Communities and Households) for each data collection activity to be conducted; and
- Supervise the overall quality of data collected.
Evaluation Criteria
The successful firm will be evaluated based on level of qualifications, mandatory requirements, budget proposal, and technical proposal.
Required qualifications
Interested data collection firms must have in-depth knowledge in primary data collection including household level surveys and with a competent team that will be able to collect data in the target states of Adamawa and Kwara states, Nigeria.
The successful firm must be composed of a carefully selected team with competence in all the key areas of the data collection as follows:
- A lead consultant with extensive experience in coordination of survey design, contract management, field work management, and reporting;
- Team lead must possess an advanced university degree in social sciences or equivalent with a good understanding of development programs;
- Extensive and proven experience in managing surveys for resilience interventions;
- Knowledge and skills in data collection using SurveyCTO application and online databases;
- Ability to work effectively with the government and other stakeholders;
- A team of enumerators with experience in administering both quantitative and qualitative data collection tools including vast experience in use of CAPI application;
Mandatory requirement
- Provide a certified copy of the business registration of company/organization
- Provide a certified copy of tax registration
- Provide information on ownership structure
- Provide at least 3 references from previous clients for similar works in Nigeria with details on the nature of work done and contact (full name, address, email, phone number) person
- Successful firms will be required to sign the Code of Conduct form
Technical proposal
Applicants are required to clearly provide information on the following in their technical proposal among other information.
- Ability to engage a team of qualified and competent enumerators and deploy them in all project locations
- Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data collection
- Provide a certified copy of tax registration
- Provide information on ownership structure
- CVs of key personnel/team lead
Financial evaluation
RFQ will depend on the scope of work, and this will be made available only to bidders whose qualifications are accepted after completion of the pre-qualification process.
Terms and Conditions of Payment
This will be finalized with the selected firm. However, final payment of work done will be based upon completion and acceptance of clean data received in Stata format by IFPRI project team.
Deliverables
The deliverables for this project are:
- Clean dataset in Stata 16 format
- A detailed data collection report with list of households interviewed per location (community)
Timeframe/duration of work
This data collection exercise is expected to last for not more than six (6) weeks (21 DECEMBER 2022)
