Agronomist - Sesame

Job Title: Agronomist - Sesame
Target Districts: Blantyre, Chikwawa and Nsanje
Commodity of Focus:Sesame
Number of days: 42 Days (including travel, preparation and final reporting)
Core elements (expected deliverables) for the consultancy: 

Phase I (15 Days)

• Review Malawi’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) manual on Sesame production
• Learn and review existing and on-going agronomy practices by Malawi sesame farmers
• Review existing literature and/or support to sesame production from Malawi-based crop researchstations 
• Learn and evaluate sesame seed systems, variety and quality in Malawi

Phase II (25 Days) 

• Provide technical input into revising the Malawi GAP guidelines/best practice to Malawi context sesame production
• Deliver high impact training and coaching to Malawi government Ministry of Agriculture district staff on best practices to supervising sesame farming to post-harvest handling and storage
• Deliver training to seed stakeholders on appropriate seed varieties for Malawi and best practice for sesame seed multiplication 
• Work with seed certifiers or selected crop research stations in Malawi to determine threshold for sesame seed certification
• Facilitate a consultative workshop of Ministry of Agriculture district staff and selected lead farmers to validate recommendations and work plan for implementation of revised GAP guidelines for sesame production

Background Information
NCBA CLUSA is a technical partner in theUSAID Food-for-Peace funded DFAP, United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations (UBALE) Program, under a consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Malawi. One of the key milestones of the program is to strengthen value chains and linkages to smallholder farmers. 
NCBA CLUSA commissioned a value chain study of sesame in Malawi between the period September 2015 to March 2016. Some of the key outcomes of this study are: i) lack of certified/improved seed; ii) inadequate technical knowledge on sesame production (Good Agricultural Practices); iii) inadequate economic capacity to procure pesticides and sprayers and iv) inadequate awareness on how to manage the effects of climate change (particularly flooding and drought) on sesame. 
Sesami is emerging in Malawi as a potential cash crop, yet these challenges, among others identified as faced by Malawi farmers, continue to dissuade increased production of the commodity. This is denying farmers an opportunity to invest effectively and increase incomes from sesame. With a view to addressing production and productivity challenges by farmers, NCBA CLUSA seeks the services of a highly experienced sesame specialist/agronomist to work with Malawi’s ministry of Agriculture to achieve the deliverables listed above. While the target immediate client for capacity strengthening on sesame production would be the Malawi ministry of Agriculture district staff, the ultimate beneficiaries will be the sesame farmers of Malawi. It is expected that the consultant will also engage with private sector agro-dealers, crop research stations, traders along the sesame value chain and selected lead farmers whenever necessary to build up a solid sesame production capacity strengthening package for adoption.

Required Competence: 

• A compelling track record of providing technical assistance to sesame producing communities with high levels of success and improvements in production and productivity. 
• Established networks with key investors in sesame value chain inputs supply in East and Southern Africa
• Reliable expertise in sesame seed systems and varieties.
• Solid experience with sesame production in similar ecological zones as Malawi 
• At least ten years practical research level and technical experience with sesame production 
• A second-level degree in a relevant field (agricultural economics, agribusiness, agricultural science)
• Proven expertise in capacity building and facilitation of dynamic and multicultural groups
• English speaking is desirable

Application:
Interested and qualified consultants should submit their expression of interest containing and include the following documents: 

1. A profile of the consultant including reference from organizations you have worked for before in similar assignments. 
2. Detailed CVs (not more than four pages) of the consultant 
3. A technical proposal- detailing how the consultant proposes to undertake the study
4. A financial proposal – providing a breakdown of consultancy fees, costs and estimate of expenses 

Send application strictly to clusamwrecruit@ncba.coop with the subject as ‘Sesame Agronomist-Malawi’

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
Hard copy applications will NOT be accepted.