REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

Proposal Reference No.: RFP: 2026/09/02

First Date of Publication: 2nd September 2026

Proposal Title: Design, Development, Deployment, and Evaluation of an AI-Powered Voice-Based Pre-Season Agricultural Advisory System for Farmers in Nepal

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is a cutting-edge, non-profit international organization committed to addressing tomorrow’s challenges today. As a core CGIAR Research Center, part of a global research partnership working toward a food-secure future, CIMMYT is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resource management.

In Nepal, farmers operate across diverse agro-ecological zones and face weather variability, climate-related risks, and seasonal production challenges. Timely access to relevant agricultural information before the cropping season can support farmers and extension personnel in making better-informed decisions on crop establishment, crop management, and disease risk management.

CIMMYT, in collaboration with relevant national partners, particularly the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), has developed pre-season agricultural advisory information in Nepal to provide farmers and extension personnel with practical, timely, and relevant recommendations. The pre-season advisory will cover key aspects of wheat production and management, including recommended sowing periods, suitable varieties, seed and agronomic management practices, and wheat disease risk and management recommendations, as applicable.

However, conventional dissemination channels may not reach all farmers effectively. Some farmers have limited access to smartphones or mobile internet, and varying levels of digital literacy can restrict access to written or application-based advisory services. CIMMYT is therefore seeking a qualified IT/software development company to design, develop, deploy, and evaluate an AI-powered, voice-based advisory system in Nepali. The system will allow farmers to access and interact with the approved pre-season advisory information through mobile phones using simple voice-based interactions.

The AI system must provide responses strictly based on the approved pre-season advisory content supplied by CIMMYT and must not generate unsupported recommendations or information outside the approved knowledge base.

1. Description of Proposal

Objective:

a. Develop and test an AI-powered, voice-based advisory system that enables farmers and extension personnel to access approved pre-season agricultural advisory information in Nepali through simple voice interactions using mobile phones.

b. Improve inclusive access to pre-season agricultural advisory information, particularly for farmers using feature phones, with limited internet connectivity and varying levels of digital literacy.

c. Establish and implement an evaluation framework to assess system usability, user engagement, comprehension, trust, and usefulness of the advisory service, and generate evidence to support future improvement and scaling.

Scope of Work:

The selected company will be responsible for the design, coding, development, testing, deployment, and evaluation of a Nepali-language conversational AI voice system for dissemination of CIMMYT-approved pre-season agricultural advisory information. The system will be based only on the approved advisory content provided by CIMMYT.

1. Design and Development

1.1 System Design

Assess information-access needs of farmers, extension agents, and relevant stakeholders in Nepal.

a. Define the system architecture, user journey, and technical specifications for delivering the approved pre-season advisory through a voice-based interface.

b. Develop a functional Nepali conversational AI voice system capable of understanding common farmer questions related to the approved pre-season advisory.

c. Establish a hotline/outbound telephone call mechanism through which farmers can access the advisory system in feature phones.

1.2 Development, Content Integration and Testing

a. Develop conversational AI voice modules capable of receiving farmer questions and providing appropriate responses in Nepali.

b. Integrate the approved pre-season agricultural advisory content supplied by CIMMYT into the system knowledge base.

c. Structure and tag advisory content so users can easily access relevant topics, including sowing time, varieties, seed management, agronomic practices, and wheat disease-related recommendations, where included in the approved advisory.

d. Ensure that the AI system responds only from the approved advisory content and includes safeguards against unsupported or fabricated recommendations.

e. Ensure compatibility with feature phones, basic mobile networks, and low-bandwidth environments.

f. Test the system for functionality, language quality, accuracy, usability, and response quality before deployment.

2. Pilot Deployment and Evaluation

a. Deploy the voice-based pre-season advisory system for a defined pilot group of farmers and extension personnel in selected locations in Nepal.

b. Provide access to the approved pre-season advisory through the established telephone/hotline mechanism.

c. Monitor system usage, frequently asked questions, successful and unsuccessful interactions, and user feedback.

d. Evaluate user engagement, comprehension, trust, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction with the advisory service.

e. Document technical and content-related issues and provide recommendations for improvement and potential scaling.

3. Deliverables

a. Functional Nepali conversational AI voice-based pre-season advisory prototype.

b. Operational hotline/telephone access mechanism for farmers and extension personnel.

c. Integration of the CIMMYT-approved pre-season agricultural advisory content into the AI system.

d. Pilot delivery of the pre-season advisory to an agreed number of farmers (500-1000) and extension personnel, with the target finalized with CIMMYT.

e. User engagement and evaluation dataset/report covering usage, comprehension, trust, usefulness, and satisfaction.

f. System architecture, technical specifications, content-integration, and design documentation.

g. Pilot evaluation report summarizing system performance, user feedback, lessons learned, and recommendations for improvement and scaling.

h. Final project report.

4. Accountability

a. After delivery, the company will fix coding bugs and technical issues related to the voice-based advisory system during the agreed support period, unless all source code and relevant technical documentation are handed over as part of the agreement.

b. The company will ensure appropriate data security and privacy safeguards for user information collected through the system.

c. The company will ensure that the AI system does not provide recommendations outside the approved pre-season advisory content supplied by CIMMYT.

5. Timeline

a. The detailed implementation schedule will be agreed with CIMMYT and relevant Nepal stakeholders at the beginning of the assignment. The work is expected to cover system design, development, advisory-content integration, testing, pilot deployment, user evaluation, refinement, and final reporting.

6. Evaluation Criteria

a. Technical experience and organizational capacity.

b. Prior experience with AI-driven voice, conversational AI, IVR, or similar farmer-facing information/advisory systems.

c. Experience in developing Nepali-language or multilingual voice/conversational systems.

d. Experience in agricultural information, advisory, or farmer-facing digital services.

e. Quality, scalability, reliability, and usability of the proposed technical infrastructure.

f. Approach to ensuring accurate responses based strictly on approved advisory content.

g. Cost-effectiveness of the financial proposal.

h. Data security and privacy measures.

i. Quality of customer support and maintenance approach.

7. Submission Requirements:

Interested service provider must meet the following minimum requirements:

a. Legally registered company/firm in Nepal

b. Registered with VAT

c. A valid company registration certificate

d. Latest Tax Clearance Certificate

e. Company profile.

f. Technical proposal, including proposed system architecture, AI/voice approach and content management approach.

g. Financial proposal.

h. Evidence of experience with similar AI, voice, IVR, or agricultural advisory systems.

i. Work plan and implementation timeline.

j. Proposed team composition and relevant expertise.

k. Approach for pilot deployment, user evaluation, and reporting.

l. Proposed sustainability and/or scaling model.

Submission Instructions and Deadline:

Interested companies or service providers shall submit their proposal in accordance with the requirements specified above. The proposal shall include Technical and Financial Proposal separately and submit via email to addresses below: 

To: T.AMJATH@cgiar.org

Cc: B.PARAJULI@cgiar.org 

Due Date: 9th September 2026

Time: 5:00 PM, Nepal Time

For inquiry:

Ph: 01-5425490/5425492

CIMMYT may reject proposals that do not substantially comply with the requirements of the proposal documents.

Proposals submitted in hard copy and received after the deadline shall not be accepted for evaluation