Malawi - Improving Agri services in Malawi using the Farmer Field School approach

Deadline for submission  of concept notes:17/07/2017 at 12:00 (Lilongwe date and time)

This is a restricted call for proposals. In the first instance, only concept notes (Annex A.1) must be submitted for evaluation. Thereafter, lead applicants who have been pre-selected will be invited to submit a full application. After the evaluation of the full applications, an eligibility check will be performed for those which have been provisionally selected. Eligibility will be checked on the basis of the supporting documents requested by the Contracting Authority and the signed ‘declaration by the lead applicant’ sent together with the full application.

The present call for proposals is designed in the frame of the sustainable agriculture program namely  KULIMA standing for Kutukula Ulimi m’Malawi, which means in the main local language, Chichewa, "promoting farming in Malawi". The program aims to contribute to increased growth and an expanded commercial agriculture base while also tackling the long term aspects related to improved food and nutrition security. The program is articulated around three main components: (1) increase in agricultural productivity and diversification through mainly upscaling climate-smart agriculture technologies; (2) agriculture value chain and business development and (3) support to improved governance in the agriculture sector. Practically, the program will promote cropping systems development (including agroforestry), strengthening of extension, research and governance, and agri-business development while the agriculture sector governance will be improved through specific support to parliament and media. For the long term capacity building and the effective implementation of improved farming practices adoption, the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach  will be used at a large scale to ensure the outreach at the communities' level. 

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

 

Objective 1: Farming communities empowered to sustainably address their various agricultural constraints in the KULIMA districts

 

Objective 2: Quality agricultural services accessible for as many farmers as possible in the KULIMA districts  

 

The expected result of this call for proposal is that the farming communities, in all the EPAs of the 10 KULIMA selected districts, have a better access to intra-community based advisory services by the community based facilitators to improve their farming business by adopting good practices at both the production and the post-harvest levels. In this context, the grantee(s) will provide support to at least 8,000 Community based facilitators (CBFs) and to at least 13,400 farmers' FFS groups. For this, the grantee(s) will necessitate to collaborate with and to facilitate when needed the existing Master trainers and any subject matter specialist available which will be required for the quality of the support. 

The key elements around which the delivering of the FFS approach has to be articulated need to be observed. These elements are:  (1) Group of farmers, (2) Study plot, (3) Facilitator, (4) Learning curriculum, and (5) Program leader. The approach is built on the principle of ‘learning by doing’ through which farmers, organized in groups, come together to conduct season long experimental trials in a common study plot under facilitation and supervision by their facilitator. In the context of KULIMA and consequently of this call for proposal, the facilitators will be community based facilitators (CBFs) who will have gone through the process of training organized by FAO. The CBFs are basically forerunner farmers, like the lead farmers, selected from their communities who after the training process will have acquired the required technical and facilitation skills to facilitate the learning process and adoption of good practices at the community outreach level

 

For detailed information and guidelines visit the link below:

 

Click herefor Guidelines and other information 

 

Financial & Grants Management

Budget Preparation	Steps to be taken while Applying for Grants
Bank Reconciliation	Letter of Intent
AdvancesÂ	Capacity Building
Cost Effective Analysis	Concept Note
How to choosea Bank	Bank Accounts
Cash and Fund flowÂ	Asset RegisterÂ
Financial Statements	Cash and Acrual based AccountingÂ