Terms of Reference

Consultant in Horticulture value chain development to provide extension and market linkages support to Market Ready Farmers in Amudat district

Background

ZOA is an international relief and recovery organization supporting vulnerable people affected by violent conflicts and natural disasters in fragile states, by helping them to realize dignified and resilient lives. In Uganda, ZOA has offices in Kampala, West Nile (Arua), Acholi (Nwoya), and Karamoja (Amudat). ZOA Uganda works both in relief and recovery in the sectors food security & livelihoods, primary/accelerated/vocational education, and peace building with a special focus on land security.

ZOA is currently implementing the Livelihood Promotion and Diversification project in Amudat District

(Phase 2: 2022-2024) to support improvement and diversification of livelihoods Amudat. The project focuses on two sectors– apiary and horticulture. One of the key outputs of this project is to support 50 Market Ready Farmers (MRFs) engaged in commercial vegetable farming on a sustainable basis, using irrigation and improved climate-smart agronomic practices. MRFs are highly motivated farmers who are ready to engage in high-value markets, adopt improved agronomic practices and have the capacity to meet quality requirements of the market and engage with big buyers or off-takers. They will be selected by ZOA from amongst the project participants.

ZOA intends to hire a qualified consultant to train and mentor the MRFs to be competitive commercial farmers, by equipping them with technical and business skills, to support them to enter into a viable market and linking them to potential new markets.

Objective of the assignment

The objectives of the assignment are

• Prepare 50 MRFs to successfully grow vegetables for commercial vegetable production on a sustainable basis using climate smart agronomic practices
• Support and guide MRFs in linkages to viable markets
• Provide field support, coaching and mentorship to MRFs at critical stages of crop development (5 visits are planned, one at each critical stage)

Expected Deliverables

• Undertake initial review of the MRFs and context in which they work to assess which high value crops can easily be promoted in the area by looking at the nature of the soils and knowledge of the farmer.
• Develop a comprehensive curriculum for the training, including climate smart practices and submit for review. The curriculum should also be relevant to the context where the project is implemented.
• Assess farmers knowledge levels to guide in the design of training materials and training required to make farmers’ products competitive in the market.
• Provide initial training to 50 market-ready farmers (both in-house and on-the-job).
• Conduct 5 farm visits during the critical crop stages named above and provide feedback to MRFs. These visits are for only one crop cycle and the trend continues until the end of the contract period.
• Provide pictorial illustrated take away guidebook for MRFs as training material.
• Provide 1 training and 5 field support reports. The training will be for basic agronomic practices of a selected high value crop while integrating climate smart practices. This will be one centralized training for 5 days.
• Provide profile of potential off-takers – including names, addresses, contact details, quality requirements, type of contracts they give (forward contract, contract farming etc), the service provider is expected to provide market for the produce and also link farmers to quality input- suppliers.
• Advise MRFs on high value and high demand vegetable crops to be grown considering their capacity and context under which they operate.

Expected time frame

The engagement is expected to start in May 2022 up to May 2023 with monthly follow-ups to provide technical support to the 50 MRFs at the critical stage of the crop. The critical stages are planting stage, seedling stage, vegetative stage and maturity, harvest and post-harvest handling stage.

Code of Conduct

The service providers are fully committed to maintain integrity, accountability and professional standards of work. Service providers will review and agree to comply with ZOA’s Code of Conduct during the assignment.

Presentation of proposal

The service provider will provide technical and financial proposals. A proposal is selected on the basis of cumulative analysis; the total score is obtained by combining technical proposal (training contents, plans, curriculum, gender sensitivity, environment sustainability) and financial proposal points.

The proposal should include the following sections:

(1) Understanding of the assignment: This section should summarize the bidder’s understanding of the task to be accomplished, the important aspects to focus on

(2) Training and support plan and methodologies: In this section, the bidder should provide a detailed plan and approach to carry out the training and support including – training curriculum, training plan, materials to be used and suggested dates of field support visit. One master training of all MRFs for 5 days and then followed by follow ups in the critical stages of the crop selected. There will be one follow-up in each stage of crop growth.

(3) Experience: The bidder needs also to provide experience in training small holder farmers in Amudat or Karamoja region and or in other parts of Uganda with references (including contact details)

(4) Technical capacity of trainers. The bidder should be able to a detailed profile for similar works.

(5) Financial proposal: The bidder will give detailed costs aligned to activities

(6) Qualification of key trainers: The bidder must briefly highlight:

Of past engagements

• Names and qualifications of the key personnel that will perform the training and support
• Experience and qualifications