Request for Proposal (RFP)

KNOWLEDGE-BASED INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN NEPAL(KISAN) II PROJECT

Request for Proposal (RFP) to digitize KISAN II’s Technical Agriculture Manual and disseminate through an accessible ICT platform for farmers, extension workers and other relevant stakeholders.

KISAN II Project overview

Knowledge-based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) II Project is a five-year project (2017-2022), overall goal of which is to increase the resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability of income growth through agriculture development. The project contributes to the objectives of the Government of Nepal’s ADS and the US Government’s FTF Initiative. The KISAN II Project has five specific components: 

• Improved productivity of selected agricultural market systems, 
• Strengthened competitiveness, resilience, and inclusiveness, of selected agricultural market systems, 
• Strengthened enabling environment of selected agricultural market systems, 
• Increased ability of vulnerable communities to act on business opportunities within selected market systems, and 
• Collaboration, learning and adaptation (CLA) applied to market systems development. 

KISAN II works in the following Zone of Influence (ZOI)4 provinces and 25 districts given below:

• Bagmati Province: Makawanpur, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot
• Lumbini Province: Kapilbastu, Palpa, Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Pyuthan, Rolpa and Rukum (eastern part)
• KarnaliProvince: Dailekh, Surkhet, Jajarkot, Salyan, Rukum (western part)
• Sudur Paschim Province: Doti, Accham, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dadeldhura, Baitadi

Statement of Purpose

KISAN-II is seeking a Nepalicompany/firm with core competency in ICT based agriculture service delivery. The overall objective of the assignment is to digitize KISAN II’s existing agriculture training manual that comprehensively outlines production process for goat, vegetables, maize, lentils, and paddy. The company/firm should also have expertise in dissemination of digital agriculture advisory. The focus shall be on creating a platform that farmers, extension workers, business owners and any other related stakeholders can easily access.

Background Information

KISAN II used to conduct in person ToT and trainings for its grantee partner’s extension staff and farmers respectively. However, due to the present COVID-19 crisis, there are difficulties to conduct in person ToT’s and trainings. At the same time, travel restrictions are in place that do not allow the field staff to move in the field and provide backstopping. Recent flareups in reported COVID-19 cases have led to a new round of lockdowns and closure. 

To ensure that KISAN II grantees, JTA’s and farmers have access to learning materials, KISAN II is proposing to develop an online system which will allow the JTA’s and farmers to easily access technical information that was traditionally delivered via the ToT and field training. The KISAN II team is presently providing support via phone calls. However, given the complexity of agriculture production, the minute details cannot be covered through an SMS or phone call. 

The online resource will provide the users the ability to easily access comprehensive agriculture and technical information. At the same time, the wealth of technical content created by KISAN II over the course of project, is in the danger of becoming redundant after the project ends. To prevent this, KISAN II is planning to form a partnership with an ICT firm who have an incentive to house, manage and disseminate the technical content created by KISAN II. KISAN II has developed USAID and GoN approved detailed guidelines on Agriculture Production. The guidelines (144 pages) are in Nepali and exhaustively covers nursery management, agronomic practices, pests and disease management and postharvest management for goat, 19 different vegetables, rice, maize and lentils. The content is in Nepali. These guidelines will be used as the reference material while developing and digitizing the content which will be accessed by the users. The ICT firm can upgrade the credibility of its technical content by using material developed by KISAN II/USAID and approved by GoN. 

Scope of Work 

In order to achieve the objectives, the scope of work in this assignment will be as follows:

• Content Upgrade- digitize KISAN II technical material
• Upgrade existing products/service infrastructure- upgrade existing ICT products to house technical material
• Promote, advertise and disseminate the platform in KISAN II ZOI to promote its use

Selection Criteria

The agency will be selected based on the following weightage value of Technical and Financial Proposal.

Deliverables:

1. Digitize KISAN II developed agriculture production guidelines for goat, 19 different vegetables, rice, maize and lentils.
2. Integrate the guidelines into ICT products and services that can be easily accessed by agriculture stakeholders- farmers, agri-business owners, technical staffs, managers, etc.
3. Promote/advertise the content in KISAN II ZOI to increase use of ICT platform to access technical agriculture information

Instructions to the Applicant(s):

Proposals outlining the applicants’ approach to accomplishing the tasks outlined in this RFP should be prepared and submitted in Microsoft Word. Cost Estimates should be prepared in Microsoft Excel and accompanied by a brief cost narrative detailing the rationale and assumptions for the major cost categories. Proposals should not exceed 10 pages (excluding annex).

Work Schedule:

Organization selected for the work will be required to complete and submit the deliverables listed below to KISAN-II within 1 year of fixed price subcontract award. Applicants, as noted above, should propose a work schedule in their proposals that includes all major tasks, key milestones, and deliverables broken down by week.

Annex A: Cost Estimate Format

Please click here for Queries and responses document regarding RFP.  Applicants can request for sample document by sending request mail to eoi.kisan@winrock.org