Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 31 Jan 2017
Background
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a not–for-profit organization formed in 2006. AGRA’s mission is to catalyze agricultural transformation in Africa through innovation-driven and sustainable productivity increases and access to finance that improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
AGRA is implementing a five year Micro Reform for African Agriculture Business (MIRA) project in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. MIRA will provide these government with access to high quality local and international technical assistance to identify, prioritize and reform specific agricultural regulations that currently limit private investment in Agribusiness operating in small holder’s agricultural value chains. In doing so, MIRA project will help to build the capacity of African governments to contentiously review and reform regulations that unintentionally limit private investment in local agribusinesses operating in Ethiopia.
As part of its support to Ethiopia, AGRA’s Policy and Advocacy Program (PAP) recently provided a grant support to the Ethiopian Seed Association to build local capacity to support the development of enabling environment for the Ethiopian seed sector. The Ethiopian Seed Association (ESA) was established to advocate for and voice the interest of its members, both private and public seed companies. ESA will implement the project in collaboration with the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR). As part of the project ESA would like to identify key policies, regulations, administrative practices, institutional setups and any other disincentives such as duties and taxes, and cumbersome licensing and registration processes that limit the growth of private seed sector in Ethiopia and come up with viable set of solutions to address the challenges.
Context of the consultancy
The commercial seed sector generally contributes to meeting about 15% of farmers’ demand for seed across all crops. The private seed sector is increasingly becoming essential in supply seeds for the agriculture sector. However, its production capacity and its participation in the distribution and marketing of seeds is limited only to hybrid maize and few vegetable seeds.
The Growth and Transformation Plan phase II (GTP-II) currently being implemented in the country is focuses on expanding the production of food, feed, export and industrial row materials. This, in turn, increases the demand for certified seed of improved varieties which is a critical constraint in crop development. Improving the supply requires strengthening the seed systems through expanding investments by national and international public and private seed firms in the seed value chain with strong regulatory support.
The Ethiopian Government has over the years developed and implemented seed policies, laws and regulations in order to strengthen the national seed industry and improve crop productivity and production. However, the seed sector is constrained by diverse bottlenecks across the seed value chain (variety development and release, production and marketing and regulatory issues) that are critical to its development. An enabling environment and effective support services must be in place for the private seed sector to ensure availability of the required quantity and quality of seed to small holder farmers. It is therefore essential to identify priority problems to enable private sector play its role in the national seed industry.
Therefore, the AGRA would like to commission a study in support of the ESA to identify, analyze and document major policies, regulations, administrative practices and institutional setups that contain private seed sector development in Ethiopia and identify alternatives solutions to remove such bottlenecks. The ESA and its partners will use the documented evidence to improve the enabling environment to accelerate the development of the seed sector in Ethiopia.
Main objectives of the consultancy
AGRA is looking to hire a consulting firm to undertake the proposed study. The consultant will be expected to:
- Identify, prioritize, analyze and document key policy, regulatory, institutional and administrative bottlenecks that constrain the development of the private seed sector in Ethiopia.
- Compare and contrast the Ethiopian practice with best practices from around the world, especially from countries that share similar conditions to Ethiopia
- Identify alternative solutions to address the bottlenecks, conduct benefit-cost analysis of the alternatives and recommend solutions.
Particular emphasis should be given to the following issues affecting the private seed sector in Ethiopia
- Investment requirements: land leasing, licensing, incentive mechanisms, etc.
- Organization/administration and enforcement
- Variety release and registration system
- Seed production and distribution (marketing)
- Seed quality control and assurance system
- Quarantine and phytosanitary measures
- Seed import and export (seed trade across countries. business opportunities for domestic and to international companies)
- Plant variety protection, biosafety proclamation
Loan provision etc.
Source of varieties and Early Generation Seed (EGS)
Access to and multiplication of EGS and production of certified seed
Variety maintenance
Quality assurance
Seed processing (facilities, cleaning, grading, packaging, labeling, etc.)
Marketing/distribution (access, pricing, transportation, etc.)
Promotion of varieties and farmers adoption
Contract agreement along the EGS and certified seed production
However, for further in-depth analysis the consultant should prioritize from a long list to a handful of key issues based on ease or difficulty of reform and potential impact to the private seed industry, to smallholder farmers and the country in general if the reforms successfully undertaken. Some of the potential benefits to be considered include not limited to:
- Accelerate adoption of agricultural technologies (technology transfer, volume of production, improve the supply of technological options and food security etc.
- Facilitate and enhance the supply of improved seed
- Encourage local and foreign seed companies to invest in the seed sector
- Impact in strengthening the seed business and facilitate the supply of certified seed for small holder farmers
Scope and approaches of the consultancy
The consultant is expected to collect relevant secondary data and literature and conduct an exhaustive desk review. In addition the consultant is expected to conduct a field survey and interviews of selected private seed companies and other relevant stake holders including policy makers at the Federal and Regional levels, research organizations, development agencies in the seeds sector, farmers’ cooperatives, and input suppliers etc. to inform the work.
Validation workshop
The consultant will produce a draft document that will be validated in a national workshop. ESA will organize the seed industry stakeholders meeting to validate and agree on the issues prioritized, the main findings as well as the proposed solutions. The consultant is expected to collect feedback and produce the final report and submit to the steering committee.
Deliverables
- An inception report and a plan of action
- Presentation of draft document to a steering committee
- Presentation for validation workshop of relevant stakeholders
- Final and revised document
Duration of consultancy
The consultant will be contracted for a total period of 90 working days starting February 2017. The consultant will present the draft document at the end of March 2017. The corrected version will be submitted in hard and soft copy after two weeks of the validated workshop.
Competencies required
AGRA wishes to contract a firm or team of experts with the following skills and qualifications:
· Extensive experience and knowledge of the seed sector, especially the enabling policy, legal and regulatory environment for seed sector development in other countries
· Previous experience of conducting similar reviews of regulations and/or legislation in agricultural policies, laws and regulations
· Familiarity with the seed sector in Ethiopia
· Ability to present complex problems in easy-to-understand language
Duration of the assignment
3 months
Reporting arrangements
The consultant will report to AGRA’s Head of Policy and Advocacy throughout the engagement period. The consultant will also directly report to ESA and MIRA Ethiopia team and will provide a biweekly updates on progress to a steering committee to be constituted by ESA and MIRA Ethiopia.
How to apply:
Proposal submission
The consultant should submit a complete proposal containing the following elements:
- Understanding of the assignment
- Outlining past experience of the firm/ consultant (Please provide a minimum of two concrete samples of similar work done for other organizations)
- Methodology proposed for the assignment (including tools proposed for the assignment)
- Work plan that includes clear timelines for the assignment
- Summary resume(s) of key staff who will work on the AGRA account
- Consultancy fee for undertaking the assignment and budget breakdown
The deadline for the submission of proposals is January 31, 2017. Interested consultancy firms or individuals should submit separately their technical and financial proposals indicating how they plan to undertake the assignment to: procurement@agra.org
Important note
Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial proposals will not be opened until the conclusion of the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals that are deemed qualified and responsive.
Disclaimer
AGRA reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.