Target Districts: Blantyre, Chikwawa and Nsanje
Commodity of Focus:Sesame
Number of days: 42 Days (including travel, preparation and final reporting)
Core elements (expected deliverables) for the consultancy:
Phase I (15 Days)
- Review
Malawi’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) manual on Sesame production - Learn
and review existing and on-going agronomy practices by Malawi sesame
farmers - Review
existing literature and/or support to sesame production from Malawi-based
crop researchstations - Learn
and evaluate sesame seed systems, variety and quality in Malawi
Phase II (25 Days)
- Provide
technical input into revising the Malawi GAP guidelines/best practice to
Malawi context sesame production - Deliver
high impact training and coaching to Malawi government Ministry of
Agriculture district staff on best practices to supervising sesame farming
to post-harvest handling and storage - Deliver
training to seed stakeholders on appropriate seed varieties for Malawi and
best practice for sesame seed multiplication - Work
with seed certifiers or selected crop research stations in Malawi to
determine threshold for sesame seed certification - Facilitate
a consultative workshop of Ministry of Agriculture district staff and
selected lead farmers to validate recommendations and work plan for
implementation of revised GAP guidelines for sesame production
Background Information
NCBA CLUSA is a technical partner in theUSAID Food-for-Peace funded DFAP,
United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE) Program, under a
consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Malawi. One of the key
milestones of the program is to strengthen value chains and linkages to
smallholder farmers.
NCBA CLUSA commissioned a value chain study of sesame in Malawi between the
period September 2015 to March 2016. Some of the key outcomes of this study
are: i) lack of certified/improved seed; ii) inadequate technical knowledge on
sesame production (Good Agricultural Practices); iii) inadequate economic
capacity to procure pesticides and sprayers and iv) inadequate awareness on how
to manage the effects of climate change (particularly flooding and drought) on
sesame.
Sesami is emerging in Malawi as a potential cash crop, yet these challenges,
among others identified as faced by Malawi farmers, continue to dissuade
increased production of the commodity. This is denying farmers an opportunity
to invest effectively and increase incomes from sesame. With a view to
addressing production and productivity challenges by farmers, NCBA CLUSA seeks
the services of a highly experienced sesame specialist/agronomist to work with
Malawi’s ministry of Agriculture to achieve the deliverables listed above.
While the target immediate client for capacity strengthening on sesame
production would be the Malawi ministry of Agriculture district staff, the
ultimate beneficiaries will be the sesame farmers of Malawi. It is expected
that the consultant will also engage with private sector agro-dealers, crop
research stations, traders along the sesame value chain and selected lead
farmers whenever necessary to build up a solid sesame production capacity
strengthening package for adoption.
Required Competence:
- A
compelling track record of providing technical assistance to sesame
producing communities with high levels of success and improvements in
production and productivity. - Established
networks with key investors in sesame value chain inputs supply in East
and Southern Africa - Reliable
expertise in sesame seed systems and varieties. - Solid
experience with sesame production in similar ecological zones as
Malawi - At
least ten years practical research level and technical experience with
sesame production - A
second-level degree in a relevant field (agricultural economics,
agribusiness, agricultural science) - Proven
expertise in capacity building and facilitation of dynamic and
multicultural groups - English
speaking is desirable
Application:
Interested and qualified consultants should submit their expression of interest
containing and include the following documents:
1. A profile of the consultant including reference from organizations you have
worked for before in similar assignments.
2. Detailed CVs (not more than four pages) of the consultant
3. A technical proposal- detailing how the consultant proposes to undertake the
study
4. A financial proposal – providing a breakdown of consultancy fees, costs and
estimate of expenses
Send application strictly to clusamwrecruit@ncba.coop with
the subject as ‘Sesame Agronomist-Malawi’
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
Hard copy applications will NOT be accepted.
