Seed Sector Analysis Consultant at IESC Tanzania

Seed Sector Analysis
Seed Sector Analysis Consultant at IESC July 2024
Position Description
Location Tanzania
Department Programs
Employment Type Consultant
Seed Sector Analysis Consultant for the Feed the Future Tanzania Agri-Finance Project
Location of Assignment: Tanzania
Proposed Level of Effort: Up to 30 days
Anticipated Start Date: July-August 2024

Objective:
The
objective of this assignment is to conduct a thorough assessment of the
seed production business in Tanzania to unveil its potentials,
opportunities and profitability. The selected consultant will identify
opportunities for collaboration between seed producers/out growers and
financial institutions, and areas for capacity strengthening on both
sides to unlock financing opportunities to increase the production and
availability of quality seeds to Tanzanian farmers, with an emphasis on
youth and women.

Background and Justification:
The
performance of the agricultural sector in Tanzanians critical for
poverty reduction, food security, and economic growth. Currently, the
agricultural sector contributes about 29.1 % of the country’s GDP, 65.5%
of employment, 65% of raw materials to the industrial sector and 30% of
export earnings. The sector is particularly important for women, who
make up 70%of the agricultural labor force and nearly 800,000 Tanzanian
youth who enter the labor force each year. However,
most farming businesses in the country are producing only a fraction of
their potential mainly due to production-related constraints such as
limited availability of good quality seeds as the main trigger point to
significantly increase crop yields and income of farming families.

Availability
of quality seeds is not only a strong symbol for increasing farm yields
and agriculture productivity but also one of the important elements to
strengthen small scale farming communities and performance of the
agricultural sector. Tanzania has the potential to become the food
basket for east, central and southern Africa if there is a reliable and
sustainable supply of quality seeds. It is estimated that the potential
demand for improved seed in Tanzania is about 120,000 tons per annum and
only 28,600 tons are made available to farmers through formal seed
system.

One of the key challenges to maintaining a reliable and
sustainable supply of quality seeds is the lack of access to finance–
particularly lack of long-term affordable capital for seed businesses,
low investment in addressing the factors influencing initial seed
quality. Other challenges includecrop management, including plant
nutrient and water supply during crop growth, climatic conditions during
seed development and maturation, as well as the harvest and drying
practices and storage facilities.

Project Overview:
The
Feed the Future Tanzania Agri Finance Project is an access to finance
project working to improve access to finance for smallholders, women,
youth, and micro, small, medium (including large) enterprises (MSMiLs)
in Tanzania by improving the agri-finance ecosystem and strengthening
the capacity of both borrowers and lenders. The Feed the Future Tanzania
Agri-Finance Project prioritizes interventions that increase
availability and adoption of priority technologies, including
irrigation, inputs (quality seed), storage, and value addition, and
create more inclusive agricultural finance ecosystems, enable expanded
and sustained lending and investment, and increase productivity and
incomes.

Project interventions intend to reach 20 financial
institutions, 15 demand-side institutions including agricultural
enterprises and women and youth groups, train 300 financial institution
staff, and reach 18,000 borrowers with $21 million in agricultural
finance facilitated in Tanzania. The Feed the Future Tanzania
Agri-Finance Project utilizes a system-driven, private sector-led
approach to target agricultural market coordination failures and develop
commercially oriented solutions that sustain and scale agri-financing.

The
project includes two interconnected strategic objectives to achieve
tangible, positive impact for smallholder farmers, women, youth,
agro-enterprises, and financial institutions.

Objective 1: Improve income and bankability of smallholders, women, youth, and micro, small and medium (including large) enterprises.
The
Feed the Future Tanzania Agri-Finance Project will deliver targeted
technical capacity strengthening and direct training and coaching to
smallholders, women, youth, and MSMiLs beneficiaries in financial and
money management skills and tools, business planning, finance and
investment, development of business funding proposals, records keeping,
loan applications, and loan repayment and/or savings strategies.

Objective 2: Strengthen financial institution operational capacity to expand agri- lending.
The
Feed the Future Tanzania Agri-Finance Project provides targeted support
to supply side financial institutions to develop new agri-finance
products and improve operational capabilities and efficiencies, build
capacity and strengthening their motivation to expand agri-lending to
smallholders, women, youth, and MSMiLs – with a focus on priority and
climate-smart technologies such as irrigation, inputs, storage, and
value addition.

The three-year the Feed the Future Tanzania
Agri-Finance Project implemented by the Improving Economies for Stronger
Communities (IESC) will improve access to finance for smallholders,
women, youth, and micro, small, medium (including large) enterprises
(MSMiLs) in Tanzania by improving the Agri finance ecosystem and
strengthening the capacity of borrowers and lenders. With a particular
emphasis on priority technologies, including climate-smart technologies.
The feed the Future Tanzania Agri Finance Project will create more
inclusive agricultural finance ecosystems, enable expanded and sustained
lending and investment, and increase productivity and incomes.

Approach:
The
focus of this assessment is to highlight the potential and
profitability of the seed business in Tanzania, opportunities for
collaboration between seed producers and financial institutions and
identify areas for capacity strengthening on both side of the financial
equation to unlock financing opportunities to increase the production
and availability of quality seeds to farmers particularly youth and
women.

The assessment will consult seed producers,
distributors, agro dealers ,farmers, government ministries, departments
and agencies and financial institutions to understand the challenges in
providing/obtaining credit and financial services to the seed
sector/from financial institutions and identify opportunities from both
sides of the financial equation for the Feed the Future Tanzania Agri
Finance Project to further support the seed system players with
practices issues that are limiting their short and long-term
partnerships and support financial institutions to deploy more credits
and finances in the sector. The assessment should draw on qualitative
and quantitative data, through primary data collection and secondary
desk research review.

The consultant will be expected to examine the following areas:

• The
  trend towards financing seed production and distribution activities and
  providing the status of financing seed production for food crops
  (maize, rice, sorghum, beans and horticultural crops) in the project ZOI
• How the needs for financing were identified, who initiated the
  processes, what players of the seed system were involved and how.
• Examine
  Tanzania policies on seed production, multiplication, distribution, and
  consumption and analyze the effects on investments in the sub sector.
• Explore seed system players current initiatives to secure financing for seed production, multiplications, and distribution.
• Examine status of seeds used by smallholder farmers and factors behind their seed selection.
• Examine seed production business potential and returns and opportunities for financing from formal financial institutions.
• Identify
  ways to increase financing to the seed sector, including how to support
  the seed system players to establish short and long-term business
  relationships and partnerships with financial institutions and financial
  institutions to deploy more credit and financing in the seed sector.
• Identify
  the availability of specialized financial products and services that
  meet the needs of seed sector players and identify required product
  terms/structure to expand opportunities to the sector.

A
consultant will be contracted to conduct the Seed Sector Analysis. The
consultant will review relevant existing studies, data and information
on seed production, multiplication, certification, distributions and
consumptions in Tanzania. The consultant will also collect primary data
by interviewing local stakeholders in Tanzania such as financial
institutions , farmers and farmer groups, seed companies, TASTA
(association of seed traders), government ministries and agencies, and
Local Government Authorities to identify the bottlenecks faced by seed
system players to access agricultural financial services in Tanzania,
including access to collateral, productive resources, knowledge, and
other factors to be determined.

The consultant will then
analyze the data and information gathered to identify and highlight
business potential and profitability of the seed business in Tanzania,
and areas for capacity strengthening on both side of the financial
equation and provide recommendations on how the Feed the Future Tanzania
Agri-Finance Project and other stakeholders can support the seed system
players to accessing finance required to grow their businesses to
increase the production and availability of quality seeds to farmers.

The
analysis will identify specialized needs and effective strategies for
engaging target populations including specific financial product and
service design and operational improvements with financial institutions,
and knowledge/capacity strengthening requirements among potential
borrowers.

Tasks:

Deliverables:

• Literature review;
• Interview questions by stakeholder type;
• Assessment report on findings, including recommendations; and
• A list of stakeholders interviewed and meeting notes.
• Administration and logistics:
• IESC will provide hotel accommodation and transport.
• The consultant is required to have their own computer.

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Requested Qualifications:

• Higher
  university degree in business development, business administration,
  economic development, agriculture, agriculture economics, or another
  related field of study
• 10 years of relevant experience in
  business development, enterprise development, business management,
  agri-business and agri-financing
• Independence and strong interpersonal skills
• Experience
  in research work, statistics, and conducting and synthesizing both
  primary and secondary data into written deliverables
• Extensive practical experience in agricultural financing
• Experience assessing the constraints and identifying opportunities in the agricultural sector
• Demonstrated ability to identify, and coordinate with various stakeholders across public and private sectors
• Creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Goal-oriented mindset and hands-on approach.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Self-motivated,
  proactive, detail-oriented, mature, professional team player with
  excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to address issues, challenges, questions, and concerns in a professional, respectful, logical, and timely manner.
• Ability to work effectively in cross-cultural contexts.
• Prior experience of working in developing country contexts – especially in Tanzania and/or East Africa – will be helpful; and
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English. 

MODE OF APPLICATION:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY!