Request for Proposal at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)

• Increasing productivity and efficiency of farmers in the cashew value chain through improving crop quality; rehabilitating and renovating orchards; strengthening the capacities of cooperatives and producer organizations, nursery systems and input suppliers.
• Boosting trade of cashew by improving harvest and post-harvest techniques, addressing gaps in data collection, analysis, and dissemination; supporting supply chain linkages between farmers and agri-food companies; and encouraging harmonized market-driven regional policies.
• PRO-Cashew has led specific activities for the development of cashew production and sustainability of the value chain. These initiatives will guide and feed into the assignment implementation while highlighting the challenges and opportunities to improve cashew productivity in Nigeria.

Roles and Responsibilities
Access to high yielding planting material in Nigeria is a strategic activity for both the Nigeria Cashew Sector and Pro-Cashew project. The consultant will work with CRIN and farmers to accomplish the following activities:

The Consultant:

• Work with CRIN, public / private extension officers and farmers throughout the mother tree selection study to develop the mother tree selection process/methodology, provide technical guidance in the collection of scions, grafting, establishment of scion gardens in selected locations of the project in Nigeria, assist in identifying and developing policies and regulations that improve the cashew production and access to high yielding material, and submit a workplan for a period covering the activities of the assignment. He/she will lead the mother tree selection study;
• Evaluate activities as well as progress reports and provide useful feedback to the study team.
• Ensure mother tree selection and multiplication of clones are timely executed and reports meet deadline
• Organize and participate in the strategic meeting with the national committee members and the FMARD Cashew Desk
• Participate in local travels in Nigeria to ensure the study meets quality research standards
• Responsible for the overall performance of the study
• Develop a mother tree selection tool kit for West Africa.

CRIN:

• Work directly with the consultant and provide the needed technical assistance or support to accomplish the study/research
• Responsible for supporting the Extension Officers
• Responsible for providing training, conducting trials, and undertaking verification exercises
• Responsible for clonal production of selected mother trees
• Responsible for rootstocks establishment

Farmers:

• Allow access to their cashew farms for the purpose of mother tree selection
• Ensure the success of the mother tree selection activity by cooperating with the research team.

Qualifications and Availability

• Briefly describe how you meet or exceed the qualifications required while demonstrating your capability to perform the services outlined as part of the SOW above.
• Please summarize your availability during the anticipated period of performance, specifically noting any dates on which you would be unavailable for the assignment. Describe your availability during the standard workweek (hours, days).
• This offer should additionally include the following attachments to demonstrate qualifications and past performance:
• Copy of current CV/Resume
• Three contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work
• At least two recent reports published or contributions from the consultant show experience conducting similar research support and report for development projects or government agencies.
• Concept Paper: Include a concept paper (minimum four pages and maximum of ten pages) on cashew nuts improved planting material production and dissemination strategy, summarizing their understanding of the SoW, the methods they will use, highlighting best practices, challenges, opportunities, and areas of focus to facilitate farmers access to cashew planting material; a draft plan and schedule for the realization of the assignment.

Application Closing Date
5:00pm, 10th November, 2021.

Submission of Documents
Proposals complete with all components outlined above should be submitted to: procurement@cnfaprocashew.org with the "Production and access to high yielding planting material in Nigeria" name in the subject line.

Disclaimer
This is a solicitation only. Issuance of this Solicitation does not in any way obligate CNFA, the PRO-Cashew Project, or CNFA's Client to make an award or pay for costs incurred by potential offerors in the preparation and submission of an offer.

In Addition:

• CNFA may cancel the solicitation and not award.
• CNFA may reject any or all responses received.
• Issuance of the Solicitation does not constitute award commitment by CNFA.
• CNFA reserves the right to disqualify any offer based on offeror failure to follow the solicitation instructions.
• CNFA will not compensate offerors for response to the solicitation.
• CNFA reserves the right to issue award based on initial evaluation of offers without further discussion.
• CNFA may negotiate with short-listed offerors for their best and final offer.
• CNFA may reissue the solicitation or issue formal amendments revising the original specifications and evaluation criteria before or after receipt of proposals.
• CNFA may modify the specifications without issuing a formal notice to all offerors when the revisions are immaterial to the scope of the solicitation.
• CNFA may choose to award only part of the activities in the solicitation, or issue multiple awards based on multiple activities.
• CNFA reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition.
• In submitting a response to this solicitation, offerors understand that CNFA's Client is not a party to this solicitation and the offeror agrees that any protest hereunder must be presented - in writing with full explanations - to the PRO-Cashew project for consideration. CNFA's client will not consider protests regarding procurements carried out by implementing partners.
• CNFA, at its sole discretion, will make a final decision on any protest for this procurement.

For more clarifications on this RFP, please Click here (PDF).