Oxfam- Request For Proposal For Consultancy Service For Access To Markets And Inclusive Value Chain Development For Smallholder

DEADLINE: 5TH OCTOBER, 2021 OXFAM REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR ACCESS TO MARKETS AND INCLUSIVE VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMER GROUPS IN & LINKAGES TARABA STATE

INTRODUCTION Development Exchange Centre (DEC) is in partnership with Oxfam in the implementation of PROSELL. PROSELL is a European Union Support to Food Security and Resilience in Taraba State to be implemented for 54 months starting from July 2018. The project’s main objective is to build resilience of small-scale farmers, fishermen and livestock owners in various commodity value chains and rural enterprises. The project intends to empower women and youth by enhancing their abilities to access required services, produce optimally, and earn more income from market activities. It is being implemented in 80 rural communities across six (6) Local Government Areas of Taraba State. The Local Government Areas of implementation are Ardo-Kola, Donga, Kurmi, Takum, Wukari and Zing.

The overall objective of PROSELL is to improve food/nutrition security and resilience of vulnerable households in disaster and conflicts affected communities in Taraba State of northern Nigeria. Its specific objectives are:

(1) To increase income of small-scale farmers by enhancing their agricultural productivity, market access, and job creation along crop, fish and livestock value chains.

(2) To enhance adaptive capacities and resilience of small-scale farming households to climate change.

(3) To promote cooperation and mutual benefits of farmers, livestock owners, and all value chain actors.

The PROSELL project has as one of its mandates “*To increase income of small-scale farmers by enhancing their agricultural productivity, market access, and job creation along crop, fish and livestock value chains*”. It is estimated that though 12% of Nigerians are undernourished yet each year Nigeria loses and waste 40% of its total food production. One of the ways foods loses and wastage could be reduced is to prevent food losses at the farm gate as well as in storage. Access to markets have been found to be a big challenge resulting to loses and/or poor return on investment made by the Nigerian farmers majority of whom are in the subsistence category. The Taraba State Government has identified a number of challenges to food production levels, including lack of infrastructure such as warehouses/silos and market facilities and lack of organized markets amongst other limiting factors. From the HEA report “The major occupation of the people of Taraba State is agriculture. Cash crops produced in the state include coffee, tea, groundnuts, and cotton. Crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava, and yam are also produced in commercial quantity”.

Justification To ensure a reduction in food wastages deliberate efforts must be made to ensure that access to market, identified as one of the key factors resulting in loses is encouraged. A key component of the activities to be carried out by the project is Facilitate farmers’ group access to agro-inputs and output markets through 1600 farmer group-off taker mutual linkage and training (A 1.1.3) and Link farmers, off-takers and financing institutions to an agricultural de-risking facility (NIRSAL) (A 1.2.5). These two activities combined would ensure that farmers are adequately trained on the need for understanding of the nature of a mutually beneficial market linkage.

Objectives The main objective of this activity is to develop the capacities of smallholder farmer groups to become market-ready for linkage to market opportunities within and outside Taraba State towards increasing their productivity and incomes in an inclusive ecosystem.

Specific objectives are to: (i) Train farmer groups on the fundamentals of agricultural enterprise development, production, aggregation, marketing, and financial management;

(ii) Develop capacities of farmer groups on how to access funding for their businesses, credit risk management (including credit worthiness and rating), and strategies for production risk mitigation;

(iii) Provide training to farmer groups on key principles of negotiation for profitable agribusiness, contract development and related issues;

(iv) Identify relevant off-takers and business enabling organizations within and outside Taraba State and link them to smallholder farmer groups across specific value chains. These organizations include, but not limited to, NIRSAL, BoA, produce marketing companies, manufacturing companies etc.

Scope of Consultancy

The scope of this consultancy will be within the six catchment LGAs of PROSELL intervention in Taraba State. These LGAs are Ardo-Kola, Donga, Kurmi, Takum, Wukari, and Zing. A total of 80 Lead Farmers and 6 Project LGA Supervisors will be drawn as participants from across the LGAs, they will have the responsibility to step-down the knowledge gained during the programme to their group members and communities. Training for these 80 Lead Farmers will take place in 2 batches to manage the number of participants properly, each of the training batch will be for five (5) days. Development of training materials, using appropriate languages, towards achieving the objectives of this consultancy. Recruitment, deployment, and management of qualified resource persons and facilitators for the training programme. Identification and engagement of business enabling organizations and potential offtakers that will interface with farmer groups during the 5-day training programme.

Methodology The training programme will be a 5-day Intensive Workshop to be led by a suitably qualified training management firm or individuals with proven requisite expertise and faculties to deliver inclusive market capacity building programme for farmer groups. The following methodologies are expected to be adopted by the consultant:

PowerPoint presentations on carefully developed course modules to address areas indicated in these terms of reference. Please note that the consultancy firm will provide some of the modules as part of its technical bid for this service. Field Training Workshop (FTW) and sound pedagogical methods using appropriate audio-visual materials for facilitation. Coaching and mentoring techniques adequate to deliver practical training and problem-solving skills to farmers considering the limit of their literacy. Group works and group projects on negotiation, contract development, and contract management that will be facilitated for adoption by the trainees. Development and use of case studies on off-taking schemes, contract farming, and integrated market arrangements to model desired change for inclusive markets and linkage to private market systems. Peer learning and peer review approach among participants to spur healthy competition and co-creation of ideas. Business clinics and deal rooms where potential contracts between farmers and other market actors can be possibly established. Pre and post-training knowledge assessment using skill set-objective matching indicators.

[1] These Lead Farmers are carefully selected using certain criteria set by PROSELL, the Consultant will have access to these criteria for review.

Expected Outcomes

Improved understanding of participants about inclusive market system development, sourcing for finance, and managing credit risks. Capacity to engage in profitable agribusiness contracts between farmers/farmer groups and different market actors and groups. At least three potential linkage and off-taking contracts or business leads established between farmers and off-takers on specific value chains. Established linkage with NIRSAL, BoA and related others for smallholder agribusiness financing.

Qualifications of the Consultant We are looking for a firm or individuals with the following qualifications:

Proven experience in delivering similar training package to related organizations with sponsorship from international donors and development organizations; Faculty with technically competent personnel of demonstrable capacities for training programmes of this nature; The faculty team lead must possess a postgraduate degree in Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension & Rural Development, Development Studies or related fields with a minimum of ten years’ experience; Strong and documented experience in conducting participatory market inclusive training and linkage programme involving smallholder farmers within Nigeria; Expanded networks with organized market actors, development finance institutions, and ability to create and close business deals between farmer groups and market actor groups. Strong organizational, analytical and reporting skills, presentation skills, attention to detail, ability to meet deadlines, and proficiency in Microsoft Office and qualitative data analysis software/tools. Similar experience delivering training programmes in locations similar to Taraba States with sufficient use of Hausa language;

How to apply Applications Procedure Interested and qualified consultants are expected to download the detailed Terms of Reference with Application Process and Requirements from OXFAM-Website: https://nigeria.oxfam.org/get-involved-work-us/procurement-consultancy

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 5:00 PM 5 OCTOBER 2021.

Oxfam- Request For Proposal For Consultancy Service For Access To Markets And Inclusive Value Chain Development For Smallholder Farmer Groups In & Linkages – Taraba State

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