CLOSED:
PIND Foundation is seeking to engage interested Individual Consultants to conduct a rapid assessment to understand the issues around access to arable land and the effects of inadequate land for smallholder farmers in delta, edo, and ondo state respectively. The primary purpose is to understand the underlying issues and guiding principles of land availability and allocation for the cultivation of arable crops – with a focus on cassava. This assessment would also provide evidence-based data of the economic value of increased production with which to engage government and communities to increase access to arable land to smallholder farmers..
SCOPE OF WORK
The scope and focus of the assessment are first to source data, analyze the data and recommend an advocacy strategy with which to engage both government and community leadership structures to make land available for smallholder farmers. The Consultant shall review relevant policy documents, programs and strategies in the agriculture and other relevant ministries from the focal States. There shall also be an extensive review of agriculture programs and the priority commodities that they support.
The use of participatory processes is mandatory for this engagement. Critical reflection of how this issue impacts the different demography in the agriculture sector: civil society, youth, women, business community and other stakeholders is integral to developing an effective advocacy strategy that can result in a meaningful change. As such, the Consultant will be expected to liaise with the State officials, communities, CSOs, market development service providers and co-facilitators.
A desk review of successful land policies that supports smallholder farming like the Cross River cocoa cultivation model, the Ogun State agriculture land allocation program and similar programs within Nigeria and other parts of the world.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The specific objectives of this assessment are divided into three broad categories:
- Government – policies and programs
- This assessment would review past and ongoing government crop programs, and explore the impact on smallholder farmers. It would try to understand why the government’s interventions do not make provisions for land allocation despite the land tenure system. It would examine why such programs have not worked in the past and the lessons learned.
- The study would analyze government land policies and the guiding principles of government reserved land for agriculture. It would seek to identify existing government reserved agriculture land in the focal States and particular communities where this is prevalent within the states.
- The study would identify factors that affect the proper implementation of agriculture land programs and policies for smallholder farmers and the limitations of out-grower schemes designed to feed both the local and industrial markets.
- Community – land management and allocation
- The assessment would attempt to select and profile three communities per focal State to understand the dynamics of the communal land management structure. It would seek to understand the systems adopted for land sharing in the profiled communities and identify possible constraints to availability and access to farmers.
- The assessment would also investigate the land fallow systems practiced in communities and explore alternatives methods of farming that would increase productivity with maximum utilization of land. The assessment would investigate how these practices affect women and measures that can be explored to improve access.
- Value chain actors – farmers associations, large agro companies
- The study would attempt to identify and garner lessons from farmers associations and agro companies that had done out-growers’ scheme. The study would try to understand the interactions amongst the different actors in such a scheme and related to the issue. The assessment should answer the questions of what is the type of relationship that exists between the actors?
- How can it improve? What are the constraints and where does the opportunity exist to make an impact.
HOW TO APPLY
- Interested Individual Consultants are required to submit a recent curriculum vitae along with a brief proposal and statement of capacity to carry the assignment. The proposal which should also indicate expected professional fees for services, should be emailed procurement@pindfoundation.org with subject heading “Consultancy for Assessment of Arable Land”.
CLOSING DATE OF SUBMISSION:
Not later than 27th July 2020.
For more info: Download and review the attached, as applicants who do not submit the listed documents provided in terms of reference (ToR) file below will be disqualified.
[wp_mb_plugin_download instance=”1″ password=”” buttonname=”Download” name=”ToR_Assessment on Access to Arable Land” datetime=”July 17, 2020 – 11:39 am” other=”v.1.7 (PIND)” atagseo=”tag”]https://pindfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ToR_Assessment-on-Access-to-Arable-Land.pdf[/wp_mb_plugin_download]
