Permaculture and Micro Gardening Consultant at Mercy Corps

Location: Damboa LGA, Borno
Position Status: Consultancy

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation. With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria; causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs.
• As the crisis has persisted, Mercy Corps’ strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long-term resilience of communities with integrated programs, focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.

Purpose / Project Description

• With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Mercy Corps’ Borno Agricultural Development Initiative (BADI) project will introduce sustainable, smart agricultural practices in Biu and Damboa Local Government Area (LGA) in Northeast Nigeria (Borno State).
• By strengthening the knowledge and skills of 20 input suppliers and six Agricultural extension workers through adapting and applying the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) alongside Farmer Field School (FFS) and Farmer Business School (FBS) curricula to provide trainings on modern farming techniques and tested agricultural practices.
• The extension workers and input suppliers will train 60 seed multipliers, six demonstration/trial garden and 300 selected vulnerable farmer households including IDPs, returnees and host communities. The 20 input suppliers will be selected from those Mercy Corps is already engaged with and will include three to five per community to ensure supported access to quality farm inputs by the farmers for relevant, high-potential agricultural techniques.
• The more established input suppliers, mostly located in town, will be linked with the smaller ones in the village communities for strengthening purposes and for farmer accessibility to the farm inputs. This will help give a population of 2,744 direct beneficiaries the skills and tools to increase food security and self-sufficiency, even with limited resources.
• The project will take a market-based approach, developing and leveraging the market for seeds and other agricultural value chains in Borno State. Mercy Corps will implement all trainings and distributions in cooperation with input suppliers and extension workers from the government’s Borno State Agricultural Development Program (BOSADP) to ensure local government engagement.

General Position Summary:

• The Borno Agricultural Development Initiative (BADI) whose goal is to introduce food insecure communities to sustainable, context-appropriate smart agricultural practices and to catalyze the market for seeds and other agricultural markets in Borno State is seeking for the services of a consultant to strengthening the knowledge and skills of at most 20 participants comprising of Agricultural extension workers, lead farmers, Local Government and State Government Agric sector stakeholders on adapting and applying the permaculture and Micro gardening curricula to provide trainings on modern farming techniques and tested agricultural practices.
• The extension workers and lead farmers will train 180 selected vulnerable farmer households including IDPs, returnees and host communities on the permaculture and micro gardening curricula for innovative and improve farming techniques on (gardening, composting, hydroponics farming using locally available resources to improve their livelihoods for increase income.

Responsibilities

• Help in the review and development of a pathway for food security and also train Agric Extension Workers in a 5-day dialogue with BADI team, Agric Extension workers and Lead farmers
• Conduct a roundtable discussion with Community stakeholders, relevant government agencies and AEWs to chart a pathway to ensure food security and combat climate change by identifying resources and opportunities.
• Explore research opportunities with participating colleges and also develop business model with the college and a few selected students.
• Prepare for and conduct permaculture and micro garden assessments in Damboa with focus on: understanding challenges related to water availability and use, soil fertility; shocks/stresses to agricultural production and current resilience strategies; suitability of climate -smart agricultural practices; community members’ motivations/desires for establishing gardens

Deliverables:

• Develop a training manual to guide the extension workers to help teach others
• Make a picture based guide manual in Hausa to help the farmers implementation
• Provide a 3-day training on permaculture, fodder production (for grass and micro green, micro gardening and hydroponics for subsistence and commercial production. A 1-day theory class and 2-day practical session.
• Strengthened the capacity of AEWs on soil fertility testing and composting
• Provide a support system for the extension workers post-training for 3 months for effective implementation.
• Develop a pre-test and post-test training evaluation.

Required Qualifications
The Consultant should have the following qualifications:

• University Degree in General Agriculture, Agronomy or related field. Candidates with MSc and above will have an added advantage.
• Good understanding of the Nigerian agricultural sector, rural development and good knowledge of crops mostly plant in Northern Nigeria specifically Vegetables production and marketing in North East Nigeria region.
• About 3-4 years’ previous experience in conducting permaculture and Micro gardening training
• Good understanding of the concept, methodology and tools use for permaculture and Micro gardening training.
• Proven experience in developing and conducting participatory training methodology
• Very good command of English and Hausa; additionally, knowledge of cultural and gender sensitivity of Northern Nigeria is an asset.
• The consultant certification and testimonies on permaculture and Micro gardening training knowledge and skill as well as engagement as permaculture and Micro gardening trainer is an input.