Invitation to Submit Grant Proposals for Propcom Mai-Karfi- Nigeria

Deadline: 23 June 2019

Applications are open for Propcom Mai-Karfi programme in Nigeria.

Propcom Mai-karfi was a six-year DFID programme aimed at increasing incomes for the poor in Northern Nigeria through enhanced opportunities for increased employment and improved productivity in selected agricultural market systems across the 19 states of Northern Nigeria. Propcom Mai-karfi ran from 5 December 2011 – 31 December 2017. This was followed by a no-cost extension to 16 March 2018, and two costed extensions to 22 June and 31 August 2018.

DFID awarded Palladium a three-year extension from 1 September 2018 – 31 March 2021.The three-year extension to the programme is to support the Government of Nigeria’s integrated security, political and economic response in stabilising and rebuilding the north east. The extension delivers income increases for the rural poor in northern Nigeria, facilitates market recovery and supports Internally Displaced Persons to rebuild livelihoods in the North East (NE). It also pilots and scales Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) business models to increase climate resilience of rural value chains and smallholder farmers. Propcom work in a reduced number of states from mid-2018:

• Tier 1 (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe);
• Tier 2 (Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi); and
• Partner States/Tier 3 (Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa).

Objectives

Competitive grants will be used to issue medium-value grants to stimulate change in 4 workstreams identified by the Propcom technical team:

• Disease control – Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) and Newcastle Disease (NCD) vaccination program
• CSA – food preservation using solar dryers
• CSA – Natural Resource Management: Water
• E-extension

Grants Workstreams

• Disease control – PPR and NCD vaccination program
  • Issues
    • NCD and PPR yet to be controlled in any State of Nigeria; hence morbidity and mortality remains relatively high.
    • Farmers impoverished by disease outbreak, and Nigeria more food insecure.
    • NCD and PPR control measures exist, but very little attempt at state-wide implementation due to high cost.
    • Policy will be required to raise awareness on the vaccination schedule and economic potential; and may potentially drive investment in vaccine distribution and delivery.
    • Sustaining a State-wide campaign requires private sector investment in distribution and last mile delivery
  • Response
    • They are seeking innovative concepts that will institute state-wide vaccination program focused on supporting a State to implement a routine vaccination calendar for NCD and PPR, activate commercial distribution points (peri-urban distributors) and delivery to the last last mile, with accompanying distribution infrastructure for the vaccines.
    • The proposal should address: policy ‘domestication’ and implementation of the PPR and NCD as part of the national strategy at state level; achieving flock/herd immunity for the effective control of PPR and NCD, limiting transboundary disease outbreaks and easy identification of other poultry diseases similar to NCD – HPAI.
• CSA – food preservation using solar dryers
  • Issues
    • Over 45% post-harvest losses from spoilage encountered by farmers: 50% fruit and vegetables, 40% root crops and 20% cereals
    • Current sun drying practice results in poor product quality with contamination and theft resulting in limited growth in the sector
    • Absence of a better way of drying may limit the interest to grow crops beyond one season
    • Over 200,000 vegetable farmers affected by the absence of a preservation technology along the vegetable production corridor – Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina
    • Unavailability of a multipurpose solar technology for all-year round business across various foods – vegetables, roots, fruits, etc
    • Unmet need for drying services – a good business model required
    • Potential to deploy solar technology to produce export quality dried products – hibiscus, ginger, vegetables, meat jerky.
  • Response
    • Viable business model that incorporates the design/production and deployment of purpose-built solar-drying technologies and marketing strategies to provide affordable drying services to farmers in the region PM operates in.
• CSA – Natural Resource Management: Water
  • Issues
    • Studies show that close to 50% of the people living below the poverty line globally live in drylands, not surprising therefore that their quality of life is lower compared to those living in other areas. These indices very well reflect the socio-economic situation of the region Propcom works in, the North-East and North Western part of Nigeria.
    • Desertification and shrinking lake chad river basin in the NE due to climate change
    • Water scarcity resulting from the above and infrequent rain fall
    • SHFs who are largely dependent on rain-fed farming, are increasingly experiencing impact on crop growth and harvests due to drought
    • Where commercial farmers (including men’s cooperatives) may readily access irrigation technologies that enable them to engage in dry season farming and maximize the rain-fed production cycle, women and most smallholder farmers lack access to irrigation infrastructure.
    • Current Market Capacity
    • Large government infrastructural projects exist along the irrigation belt.
    • Some Public Private Partnership Projects also exist, with very limited scope, politically driven and located in areas of political interest.
    • Affordable irrigation technologies not yet marketed or distributed in the North
  • Response
    • Make available wind or solar-powered irrigation infrastructure to improve the efficiency of water use, especially to women and girls as a means to addressing water scarcity and infrequent rains. The programme will prioritize innovations that address the needs of the mass market, affordability, demonstrate irrigation technology adaptation, smart product discount and marketing to encourage adoption.
• E-extension
  • Issues
    • Agricultural extension system is weak or non-existent in Nigeria
    • The above resulting in a missed opportunity in diagnosing farmers problems and what they need, and as such, unable to promote behaviour change with practical solutions that are relevant to meet their needs. The disconnect also affects the ability of the system to collect feedback from farmers for improvement.
    • information services are a primary need of the farming population in northern Nigeria
    • Over 24 million smallholder farmers lack the necessary information to improve their productivity and grow their enterprise – limited onsite (one-on-one) and ICT-driven extension provision
    • Conflicts, widely dispersed farmer settlements and limited transport infrastructure imposes an additional challenge to establishing a thriving extension system in Northern Nigeria
    • Propcom attempts at addressing agri-extension has been intervention-based, working with individual private sector partners to address specific information needs that will unlock farmer productivity within the partner’s sphere of influence. Whilst this has been largely successful, it has been limited in scale and failed to address the underlying missing market capacity – absence of agricultural extension service providers
    • Although the gnawing access gap is an opportunity for market actors to provide a fee-paying service to rural farmers, this has not happened perhaps due to the fact that government supported agriextension is perceived to be a ‘free service’, as such, it is unclear what the returns would be upon investing in the logistics and huge infrastructural requirement
    • Current Market Capacity:
    • Mostly government run extension departments, poorly funded and underperforming; only offer onsite extension agents. They also lack the capacity (financial and technical) to transform their system to be agile and responsive to farmers needs
    • The Telecom’s industry has significant reach in Nigeria – GSM and internet providers, Programmers, etc and ripe for leveraging Telecoms to promote extension, but this is still untapped.
    • No private organization is providing any form of fee-paying information service to rural farmers because of the obvious risks – agri-extension is perceived to be a ‘free service’, uncertainty associated with farmers willingness to pay for information, unclear what the returns would be upon investing in the logistics and huge infrastructural requirement
  • Response
    • Business innovation that leverages ICT (Radio, Videos, Billboards, Cell Phones) to reach farmers in conflict and post-conflict affected regions with Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and other inputs they need to improve their productivity.
    • Priority will be given to concepts that incorporates feedback services and onsite extension support, and service fees that reflects the purchasing power of the lower socio-economic wealth quintile (C2DE).

Funding Information

Propcom expects to disburse grants ranging between NGN 23,000,000 and NGN 118,000,000.

Length

The length of each grant is expected to be between 12 and 15 months.

Geographical focus

Nine focal states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe and Taraba

Eligibility Criteria

Formal Eligibility criteria

• The applicant must be a legal entity registered in Nigeria and able to demonstrate a minimum of two years of revenue-generating operations certified by audited accounts. Entities eligible to apply include:
  • Private sector companies.
  • Civil society organisations (CSOs), nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs).
  • Research organisations and policy institutes/think tanks.
  • Trade and industry associations.

Procedural requirement

• The applicant should be consisted of a single entity. The entity must be registered in Nigeria.
• Each entity can submit a maximum of 2 proposals.
• Subcontracting is permitted but needs to be clearly indicated in the application. Applicants are expected to co-finance the project (either in-kind contributions or monetary support) with at least 20% of total grant cost.
• Applicant must present all the mandatory documentation

Due Diligence Requirement

To be awarded a grant, an organisation must meet due diligence assessment requirements. These include, but are not limited to, the items below:

• Not have been the subject of any proceedings or other arrangements relating to bankruptcy, insolvency or financial standing in the last 5 years
• Have fulfilled all obligations relating to the payment of income tax or sales tax or other tax contributions within the country
• Senior Directors or Senior Managers have not been convicted of, or are the subject of, any criminal proceedings, including those relating to:
• Participation in a criminal organisation;
  • Environmental crime;
  • Illegal land transactions and acquisitions;
  • Corruption including the offence of bribery;
  • Fraud including theft;
  • Professional misconduct; and
  • Money laundering and financing of terrorist organisations.

Project Eligibility

To be eligible to receive a Propcom grant, the proposed project should:

• Meet the thematic / technical requirement of the grants as outlined above.
• Do no harm.
• Be capable of delivering at scale.
• Show they can deliver measurable social and/or environmental outcomes while maintaining commercial viability.
• Include proactive and inclusive measures for engaging with stakeholders and communities.
• Deliver positive impact for all partners and communities.
• Open MEL systems which can be scrutinised in respect to the use of the Grant Fund

How to Apply

Concept proposals should be submitted in English via email at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit http://www.propcommaikarfi.org/jobs