Beschreibung der Beschaffung
Nigeria is a key regional player in West Africa accounting for about half of West Africa"s population with over 200 million people and one of the largest populations of youth in the world. More than 40 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line and 25 percent are vulnerable. Despite good agro-ecological conditions, Nigeria's agri-food sector is still unable to meet the demand for staple foods. Although about 35 percent of the population works in the agricultural sector and up to 80 percent is directly or indirectly dependent on agricultural activities, Nigeria imports large quantities of staple foods and is at the mercy of a multitude of risk factors in times of high prices and volatility on the commodity markets. The discrepancy between actual and potential agricultural yields is striking. Lack of incentives and innovations to promote agricultural businesses is still a major factor hindering the proper development of agriculture value chains (VCs).
In 2014, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched the special initiative "One World No Hunger" with the aim to make significant contributions to the reduction of poverty and hunger. The global programme "Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector" is part of this initiative.
In Nigeria, the Green Innovation Centre supports actors along the four agricultural value chains maize, cassava, rice and Irish potato, with the aim to improve the income and productivity of small-scale farmers, to create employment opportunities and to foster entrepreneurial development. The project identifies, promotes and dissemiantes innovations in the prioritised value chains to reach 250,000 smallholder farmers and 5,000 managers of agricultural enterprises across eight selected states in Nigeria. Additionally, 400,000 farmers are reached using information and communication technologies.
The target group of the project in Nigeria are smallholder farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) upstream and downstream of the value chains. A strong focus lies on the promotion and empowerment of women and youth in the sector.
The political partner of the project is the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP) while the implementing partner is the Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD). Over the past decade, the Nigerian government has put a stronger focus on the promotion and development of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) and Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) provided viable national guidelines for developing agricultural productivity, increasing incomes and creating jobs along selected value chains.
The programme supports the Nigerian government and its respective ministries and departments through its overall objective:
Agri-food innovations have contributed to sustainable rural development in selected states in Nigeria.
The objective of the tender is to (1) provide actors in the supported smallholder farms with innovations that increase productivity and income and address climate change, and (2) provide actors in the supported upstream and downstream enterprises with innovations that improve business performance and create employment. In addition, the activities will include the promotion of adopting the disseminate innovations among the target group. All innovations shall be implemented and designed to allow for horizontal or vertical scaling-up.
The assignment framework is based on the fundamental consideration that a stronger impact orientation simultaneously requires mechanisms to ensure flexibility with regard to inputs. Therefore, the consideration and valorisation as well as lessons learned from previous approaches and cooperative relationships as well as achievements are indispensable. The implementation will consider and build upon the already achieved target and approaches including but not limited to:
- Strengthening entrepreneurial skills and capacities of farmers through application of the training concept Farmer Business School (FBS)
- Providing extension messages on good cultivation and post-harvest practices and support services to farmers across the value chains through the training concept Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)
- Strengthening farmers cooperatives and producer organisations and the services they provide to their members (Cooperative Business School)
- Strengthening capacities of off-takers/processors in improving commercial relationships with smallholder farmers leading to quality improvement in farm produce and products (Contract farming)
- Entrepreneurship development for agribusinesses - ensuring institutional sustainability of the agribusiness entrepreneurship training approaches by public and private actors to continue to provide the trainings beyond the exit of the project
The activities implemented under the tender will take into account cross-cutting topics of the project which includes (I) gender equality, (II) youth employment, (III) digitalisation together with the use of information and communication technologies, (IV) climate change and (V) mechanisation.
All activities should be done in cooperation with the global project "Promoting agricultural financing for agribusinesses in rural areas" (AgFin) to improve access to financial services for stakeholders and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition to contribute to improved food security and nutrition among the target group.