OXFAM CONSULTANCY ON GREEN HOUSE TECHNOLOGY

Rationale:

Growing fruits and vegetables is one of the most promising areas for horticultural expansion and development in the world. Fruits and vegetables are crops grown for both home use and domestic markets and can be grown all year round using relevant agricultural techniques. They are important cash crops for small-scale growers with a potential for increasing incomes in rural areas, improving the standard of living and creating employment opportunities. Fruits and vegetables are natural antioxidants that are excellent sources of potassium, calcium, and vitamins A, C and E. All of these are important nutrients needed for whole health management and are needed to prevent a number of diseases, including cardiac diseases and cancers. Health importance of fruits and vegetables extends beyond antioxidant function to include other protective usefulness as antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory functions. Over 200,000 fruits and vegetables varieties are grown around the world for various purposes. They are often grown outdoors in temperate climates as annuals and they are affected by the variety, state of ripeness, year, climatic growing conditions, light, temperature, soil, fertilization, and irrigation. They can be grown on many different soil types, but a deep, loamy soil, well drained and supplied with organic matter and nutrients is most suitable.
One of the specific result areas intended by PROSELL is to facilitate increased income of small scale farmers by enhancing their agricultural productivity, market access, and job creation along crop, fish and livestock value chains. This specific objective implies that the project will work with smallholder farmers to improve their capacities for enhanced productivity by introducing improved production practices relevant to their environment. To do this, Activity 1.1.5 of the project aim to Support 3900 youth farmers (female and male) with agro-enterprise development materials and expertise to replicate vegetable farming techniques through small-scale greenhouse technologies using local resources, improved seeds processing, packaging, and storage facilities. The intention of the project is to facilitate massive production of vegetables at the household levels to complement nutrition needs, provide additional or alternative source of incomes, and make optimal use of natural resources (land, in this case) for general livelihoods improvement.

Today in Nigeria, production of fruits and vegetables cannot catch up with the demand leaving majority of the population malnourished and susceptible to diseases and ailments and creating opportunities for neighbouring countries, (like Benin Republic, Togo, Chad, and even Algeria) to export their fresh produce through our porous borders without reflection in national trade statistics. Transforming and commercializing agriculture requires that an all year production is guaranteed using contemporary farming technologies for the control of biotic and abiotic factors affecting crops’ cultivation without jeopardizing the sanctity of the environment. This becomes highly expedient in order to have sufficient pool of raw materials to feed processing plants (which are being established all over the country), provide all year round food items for the growing population without having much variation in pricing, support the league of farmers with input materials all year round and develop local capacities for improved yields using new approaches.

In the light of the above, the traditional farming methods obtainable in Nigeria today, which is predominantly open field cultivation (mostly rain fed and scantily irrigated like in the case of many parts of Nigeria), is no more adequate. Cultivation in the open field makes all year production impossible due to seasonality and sharp variations in climatic conditions through the year, uncontrollable susceptibility to diseases’ and pests’ invasion, difficulties in effective and efficient soil nutrients/water management in the open field, limitation in the control and management of yields and inability to raise most hybrid varieties of high value crops in the open field with desired outcomes.

Taraba State is one of the States in northern Nigeria to have invested massively into greenhouse production of fruits and vegetables. The State Government in 2015 initiated the first greenhouse farm facility in the entire north-east region of Nigeria targeting the production of four exotic crops namely cucumber, lettuce, pepper, and tomatoes. The project is a sophisticated high-end and high-cost greenhouse facility valued at over 2 billion naira at conception. Current production capacity and contribution of the greenhouse to socio-economic improvement of Taraba State has been reportedly impressive with opportunities for research and development for scientists, agronomists, and students. The greenhouse project by Taraba State government is an Israeli-technology imported from Israel and the contract for its installation and preliminary management was handled by an Israeli company.

Greenhouse technologies have been largely domesticated and localized in Nigeria with in-country capacities to train smallholders on the construction of greenhouse facilities using locally available materials. There are also in-country expertise in the scientific and agronomic management of greenhouses at a low cost, small-scale, and manageable investment portfolio categories which are important for replication by smallholders. It will be important to use the existing large-scale greenhouse facility established by Taraba State government to encourage local replication and to promote increased production of fruits and vegetables by women and young people across rural communities in Taraba State. In pursuant of the relevant project objectives, PROSELL will be facilitating the process of transferring needed capacities to small-scale growers, especially women and young people in project locations, for smallholder greenhouse construction and production.

Objectives of the Consultancy

The main objective of this consultancy is to acquire the services of a qualified individual(s) or firm for the purpose of training and capacity building of smallholder farmers, mainly women and young people, on greenhouse technology using locally available materials and processes. Specifically, the consultancy will be expected to:

a) Develop training manuals covering important sections of greenhouse production, construction, production management for productivity and profit;

b) Deliver training to selected representatives of smallholders, extension workers from the State’s Agricultural Development Program (ADP), and project staff from across project locations on greenhouse production techniques, improvement practices, and sustainability planning. The training will adopt a training of trainers approach.

c) Demonstrate how to practically construct and set-up local greenhouse facilities suitable and appropriate for small-scale production by women and young people. One greenhouse demonstration site will be established in each of the project LGAs for this purpose.

d) Provide hands-on training for participants on the construction of investment outlays, risk management, efficient running of the greenhouses, and marketing/sales strategies among others.

e) Develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems to periodically assess progress made by participants in the implementation of the project;

f) Provide three months (or 90 days) post-training hand-holding support services to the project in order to ensure proper foot holding of the new knowledge.

Methodology

The following mix of methods will be expected to be adopted for the consultancy service:

· Structured classroom training using adult learning methods with PowerPoint presentation and audio-visual materials;

· Onsite practical demonstration sessions using field training workshop (FTW) approach;

· Group works and syndicate sessions;

· Mentoring and coaching methods to support participants to best understand the core principles and to acquire needed skills.

· Learning tour of Taraba State Greenhouse Farm at the University and State’s College of Agriculture.

Deliverables

Core deliverables expected from the Consultant at the end of the activity will include:

§ A comprehensive Training Report with the following suggested subheadings: Executive Summary, Introduction, Training Objectives, Methodology, Outcomes/Recommendations, Challenges, Next Steps/Forward Planning and, attachments, including Signed copies of Attendance Lists, Pre- and Post-Test , Results sheets and Photographs.

§ Monitoring and evaluation tool developed for ongoing assessment of participants application of acquired knowledge;

§ Training manuals in hard and soft copies.

Project Management

All documents, project designs, data and information shall be treated as confidential and shall not, without the written approval of Oxfam, be made available to any third party. The utilization of the reports is solely at the decision and discretion of Oxfam while all the documents containing both raw data/materials provided by Oxfam and final report, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to Oxfam upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written because of this assignment or otherwise related to it, shall remain the property of Oxfam. No part of the report shall be reproduced or published except with the prior, expressed, and specific written permission of Oxfam.

Training Locations

The training would be conducted in Taraba State with travels to the six implementing LGAs as may be required.

Qualification and Experience of Consultant

· An advanced degree in Agronomy, Crop Production, Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Sustainable and Inclusive Agriculture or other related fields.

· Cognate and requisite experience in greenhouse production management, greenhouse construction, precision farming, farm management, farm quality assurance, and farm project establishment.

· Demonstrated capacity in integrating gender equality and diversity concerns in programming, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation.

· Extensive experience in livelihood programmes and projects, preferably in northern Nigeria and with appropriate experience in mentoring and coaching.

· Sound knowledge of resilience programming, rural development, rural livelihoods enterprise, family farming, agricultural markets and agricultural private sector actors.

· Excellent training facilitation skills, report writing, and capacity assessment skills.

The scope of this consultancy includes all logistical arrangements necessary for the Consultant and her/his team to deliver the outlined works and should therefore reflect in the financial proposal for this consultancy. Oxfam and Development Exchange Centre will provide training venues and other training logistics for the participants.

Management Team

This work will be managed by a team composed of the PROSELL Project Manager, MELSA Team, Partner’s Livelihoods Programme Officer (LPO), including other relevant Staff of Development Exchange Centre in Taraba State.

INSTRUCTION TO BIDDERS
Application Requirements:

Proposed methodology should demonstrate:

· A detailed technical proposal clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including but not limited to the following:

· Consultant/Company Profile and legal documentation

· Description of the Methodology and approach to be used for this training.

· Demonstrated previous experience in similar assignments and qualifications outlined in this ToR.

· CV(s) of consultant(s) (including company profile in the case of firms) who will undertake the study, including full name, physical addresses, telephone number(s).

· References of two or three previous clients.

· Proposed budget indicating clearly consultant’s fees and all logistical costs in local currency (NGN).

Response to the Request for Quotation (RFQ)

In responding to this request, your are required to provide two sets of documents:

· Technical Proposal

· Financial Proposal