Baseline study – Small livestock in Zambia 63 views0 applications

BACKGROUND TO THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SECTOR

The food and agriculture sector is currently dominated by low value mono-cropping of maize, with very little processing and value addition in-country. To achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, the limited competitiveness of the sector is a key problem that needs to be addressed. Prospero works to increase the presence and competitiveness of Zambian origin food products in end-consumer markets, both locally and internationally.

During the first phase of the programme, the focus was on increasing the competitiveness of the sector by identifying businesses that were ready and willing to innovate and develop scalable businesses in the small livestock, fruits and vegetables and legume sectors. During this new phase, Prospero aims to enhance and scale up their work by building on the bilateral business linkages that were created with value chain players and scale this up by focusing on building consortia of value chain players, both vertically and horizontally, along value chains or supply chains.

The programme aims to address investment constraints more systematically to stimulate business growth by developing innovative financial products to address constraints to growth and providing technical expertise and capacity building to SMEs so they are able to transition and access diverse commercial investment.

Prospero therefore envisions that at the end of the five-year programme, the agriculture sector will have integrated inclusive value chains in diverse sub-sectors allowing MSMEs to be able to have access to diverse investments to successfully compete on the local and international markets, provide food products and services and contribute to poverty reduction in Zambia.

Prospero’s food and agriculture sector comprises of 3 ‘initiatives’, defined as sub-sectors, or market systems that the programme aims to focus on. The three key initiatives include:

• Small livestock (e.g. goats, fish, pigs);
• Fruits and vegetables (e.g. tubers, high-value vegetables, export fruits and vegetables); and
• Legumes (e.g. soya, beans, groundnuts).

The small livestock sector is characterised as a fragmented value chain with many MSMEs having limited scale and therefore only able to supply informal markets. The program aims to commercialise and formalise the small livestock (goats, pig and fish) sub-sector through the strengthening of businesses in breeding, aggregation, value addition and export to bolster the value chain which is expected to increase participation of SMEs (including emerging farmers). This is expected to result in an increase in poverty reduction, job creation and income opportunities for rural populations (especially farmers), women and youth. In addition, the initiatives will build local, regional, and international market opportunities for small livestock products and service.

Prospero aims to address the following five constraints that impede growth within the small livestock sector:

• Access to inputs and information to farmers.
• Aggregation and storage.
• Processing/value-addition.
• Compliance to local and export standards, certification, and industry governance.
• Access to finance for increased investment and growth.

Prospero has previously piloted a few activities within small livestock, particularly goats. Given initial success, Prospero intends to strengthen their work on goats, but also expand to include pigs and fish with a focus on the Copperbelt, Muchinga, Luapula, Southern, Central, Northwestern and Lusaka provinces. The objective is to develop a fully functioning value chain from inputs all the way to local and export markets, with a strong focus on strengthening businesses in breeding, aggregation, value addition and export to bolster the selective value chains.

CONTEXT OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The specific context for this assignment is:

The specific target beneficiary group for the small livestock initiative comprises male and female smallholder farmers and labourers who derive incomes from micro-household agricultural enterprises in rural areas. They typically grow some crops (primarily maize) for household consumption and may sell surplus production through informal markets. Some smallholder farmers also keep livestock (poultry, goats, cattle, and to a lesser extent fish and pigs). However, small livestock; mainly goats, sheep, pigs, and village chickens are kept as a source of additional incomes and are only sold through informal markets in times of social-economic stress i.e. to pay school fees or exchange for maize in times of hunger.

The livestock sub-sector (fish, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry) accounts for almost a third of the agriculture sector’s 21% contribution to national GDP (Zambia Statistics Agency, 2018) and is a key sub-sector with high potential for poverty reduction, livelihood security and economic growth. In the context of the 7th National Development Plan, the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has placed livestock and fisheries sub-sectors at the heart of its agricultural development priorities.

Over the last decade, Zambia has experienced significant growth in local demand for small livestock particularly goats, sheep, pigs, and fish. This is attributed to changing consumption patterns driven by an increasing middle class, urban populations, and incomes. However, the country falls far short of meeting its local demands, for example 48% of the fish sold on formal markets is imported from Namibia (88%) and China (12%).

Regional demand for small livestock has also increased, with Zambia exporting goats and pigs to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola, with over 4,500 goats exported to neighbouring DRC monthly (IAPRI, 2016). The Zambian Government has also potentially attracted international export markets with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Saudi Arabian government for the export of 1 million goats and sheep annually.

The small livestock initiative has two core development objectives across all product value chains:

1. To reduce poverty by creating jobs and income opportunities throughout the value chain; and
2. To increase food security and climate change resilience among vulnerable, rural populations through diversification. Our strategy is to develop a thriving small livestock sector that is: Characterised by formalised, commercial SMEs supporting distributed production of quality products by smallholder farmers; and to access and compete successfully in local, regional, and international markets.

OBJECTIVE OF THE BASELINE

In order to get a deeper understanding of the small livestock sector pertaining to the different constraint areas and growth opportunities for market actors and farmers, Prospero intends to conduct a baseline across three value chains- goats, pigs, and fish. The purpose of the baseline is to develop:

(1) Macro-level status of the small livestock sector across 3 value chains- goats, pigs and fish. This should include the total value and volume of the value chain, the contribution to Zambian economy, growth trajectory, number of households involved, employment status, the current and potential demand and current export value.

(2) A system map of the small livestock sector outlining the key market actors within the goats, pigs and fish value chains. This should include the number of players (both public and private), their role, type of business model, relationships between actors, value of transactions (or size of the businesses) within each of the function areas: inputs and information, aggregation and storage, processing, certification and export. It should also highlight the key constraints of the market actors across these function areas and also the potential opportunities for growth and investment.

(3) Farm level data on the total number of households involved in rearing small livestock, average farm size, farm output (average weight per animal, number of days kept etc) and costs involved, current farm practices (breeding, feeding, health practices etc), role of men and women, sources of inputs, information and sales, net income from sale of small livestock and constraints to farm growth.

The contracted firm will conduct the baseline on macro data, systems map and primary review based on specific target locations and specific partners on a potential long term framework contract to collect baseline data of target group as and when Prospero signs more partnerships. Baseline at farm level will be conducted just immediately before starting the intervention partnerships width grantees are signed.

SCOPE OF WORK

The purpose of the assignment is to provide technical support to the process of undertaking a baseline study on the status of the value chain under the small livestock (goats, fish and pigs) agricultural subsector from input supply – aggregation – processing – market supply – exports in order to establish the scale, key stakeholders, major areas of operation and challenges/barriers to entry pertaining to the small livestock subsector. This study will be conducted in Copperbelt, Muchinga, Luapula, Southern, Central, Northwestern and Lusaka provinces. The consultant will be supervised by the Prospero M&E Manager in collaboration with his Food and Agriculture sector team to deliver stipulated deliverables in the TORs. The consultant will collect data, analyze it and provide technical support to the entire process and produce a comprehensive jargon free report.

The exact scope of work will include the following among others:

• Develop an inception report based in the proposed methodology
• Develop the required data collection tools to be used.
• Compile and provide the list of stakeholders, interview Key informants, such as policy makers and key players in the small livestock sector (regulators, commercial breeders, small local farmers) at national and regional levels. These will include but not limited to: ▪ Commercial Breeders
• Agro-dealers
• Veterinarian Service Providers
• Emerging breeders
• Aggregators/cold storage operators
• Fish/Meat processors
• Government institutions and departments
• Farmer Organizations
• Smallholder livestock farmers
• Ministry of livestock staff
• Oversee the entire baseline study process and provide overall coordination for the study
• Prepare comprehensive baseline study report and a summarized report both to be submitted to Prospero.
• Prepare PowerPoint presentations and give presentations to Prospero staff and key stakeholders.

Deliverables

Inception report and work plan – Due: 26 November 2020

Draft report – Due: 20 December 2020

Final study report – Due: 30 December 2020

Key summary report – Due :10 January 2021

Presentation to Prospero – Due: 12 January 2021

REQUIRED/DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE

• Interested firms should provide information demonstrating that they have the required experience and relevant qualifications to perform the services described in the TORs.
• More than 5 years’ experience in the field of agriculture and livestock development.
• Demonstrate evidence of skills and competencies required to conduct Baseline studies in the field of agriculture and small livestock subsector.
• Show evidence of previous experience in related tasks and expertise in designing data collection tools, data collection and analysis.
• Adequacy of the proposed methodology and work-plan in responding to the Terms of Reference
• Staff qualifications and competence for the assignment
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of the FCDO funded programs are an added advantage
• Excellent understanding of research methodologies including statistical and qualitative analysis and technical report writing
• Experience in the field of agriculture sector reviews and monitoring and evaluation. Specifically, the consultant must demonstrate the understanding of social science methodology in their proposal and key variables to be used in data collection.
• Knowledge of agriculture sector and agricultural value chains

PROPOSED BASELINE METHODOLOGY OUTLINE

To review the proposed methodology, view the full terms of reference here:https://prospero.co.zm/app/uploads/2020/11/Small-Livestock-Baseline_RFP.pdf