Senior Consultant - Horticulture

Introduction

The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is the lead apex institution for community-driven development in the country. Set up as a fully autonomous not-for-profit private sector organization, PPAF enjoys facilitation and support from the Government of Pakistan, World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), KfW Entwicklungsbank (Development Bank of Germany), and other statutory and corporate donors. PPAF aims to be the catalyst for improving the quality of life, broadening the range of opportunities and socio-economic mainstreaming of the poor and disadvantaged, especially women. 

The understanding and experience of PPAF about the dynamics and dimensions of poverty has grown to recognize that poverty is not just about low income levels but is endemic in households and communities which have limited opportunities, few assets, low education and health status, lack of access to basic infrastructure and suffer from lack of social, economic and political participation. This refined understanding has enabled PPAF to expand its vision to encompass Pakistan without hunger and poverty and its mission is to reduce poverty in the country through a multipronged strategy which enables poor rural households to increase their productive potential, reduce their vulnerability through investments in assets, skills and access to services and increase their social, economic and political participation.

The core operating units of the PPAF deliver a range of development interventions at the grassroots/community level through a network of more than 130 Partner Organizations (PO) and 1020 Union Councils across the country. These include social mobilization, livelihood support, access to credit, infrastructure and energy, health, education and disaster management. Externally commissioned independent studies have demonstrated positive outcomes and impact of PPAF interventions on the lives of benefiting communities related to their economic output, household incomes, assets, agricultural productivity skills, and other quality of life indices. 

Background 

The Italian Development Cooperation (IDC) has entrusted to PPAF € 40 million soft-loan for the execution of the Programme for “Poverty Reduction through Rural development in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and neighboring districts/ Programme for Poverty Reduction/PPR)”. 

The Pakistan-Italy partnership to support beneficiaries rural Communities within the PPAF methodology framework will encompass leading principles of Italy’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), including its adhesion to the Aid Effectiveness agenda (Paris, Accra and Busan), mainstreaming guidelines, local coordination and sharing of responsibility with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Development Partners. Capitalization and appropriation of output results of PPAF and Italian Cooperation portfolio will be a logical scope to pursue, in response to the aforementioned criteria. The Programme funding encompasses untied and tied components: the first for the preparation and execution of all field activities, the latter, worth € 2 million, for the procurement of goods and services of Italian origin. Harmonized and coherent utilization of tied funds will also be part of the technical package adopted for Programme implementation. 

The Programme covers 14 districts and 38 Union Councils in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and FATA. The population is approximately 995,000, constituted by 136,000 households, out of which 86,000 HH (63%) are involved directly and indirectly with agriculture/horticulture and livestock, and 12,000 HH (9%) are earning their livelihoods through fisheries. Remaining 38,340 HH (28%) are either employed, self-employed or have established their own small businesses/enterprises.  The components covered under the PPR include Social Mobilization, Livelihoods and Enterprise Development/LEP, Construction and improvement of small-scale community-infrastructures/CPI, Health and Education. 

Selected local communities, cooperating with a variety of national to local level stakeholders, will be supported to use and manage their resources and capacities in a proactive and sustainable manner, not only to improve their livelihoods, but to also contribute to ecosystem stability, functions and services. Lessons learnt from successful activities will be documented, and widely disseminated to encourage up-scaling in other areas of the country. 

The AICS has entrusted to World Bank, via an "Agreement for Advisory Services", as the supervision body for the program including oversight and monitoring, implementation and compliance of environmental and social management framework and fiduciary (financial management and procurement) control of the Programme, which is carried out on regular basis and through semi-yearly "Implementation Support Missions/ISM". 

Rationale for the Consultancy

Within the Programme’s framework, during the preparation of the Village Development Plans (VDPs), Union Council Development Plans (UCDPs) and lately Union Council Livelihood Development Plans (ULCDPs), the communities have often expressed the desire to include the Olive among the innovative crops to introduce in their marginal lands, due to its adaptability and low requirement of water. 

Given the extensive investments already done by the Government, through the support of the Italian Development Cooperation, in promoting the Olive value chain in the most suitable areas of the Country i.e. Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, which are also the Programme geographical areas, the Programme has conducted in previous years some consultancies that have assessed the results of the extensive activity done by the Italian supported endeavors, and guided the introduction of the Olive crop to the PPR communities. In particular, field visits were conducted to evaluate the growing of the olive plantation done, spanning over 1,500 hectares, and correlating the findings to the characteristics of the Union Councils of the Programme in order to assess their suitability for the introduction of crop. Accordingly, 8-20 farmers were randomly selected in each districts and interviewed according to predefined pro-forma.

As outcomes of the recommendations of the consultancy conducted, which also delineated a Road Map for the promotion of the value chain of the Olive crop, some 17,000 Olive seedlings have been planted in September 2016 benefiting 112 farmers. Some recent field visits have revealed that many plants are suffering from lack of water, due to persistent drought; the beneficiaries have not been able to supply the needed water, that at the initial stages are badly required in absence of rainfall.  

The introduction of the Olive crop, mainly in marginal lands, requires intensive technical follow up: to this end the Programme has planned to carry out a follow-up specialized consultancy, in order to assess the findings from the activity done so far, to capacitate the staff of the POs and the Community, and to assist the establishment of new plantations that will take place at the end of the monsoon season. 

In this regard, a Senior Consultant on Horticulture for Olive crop production is required for a short-term period to provide expert inputs to PPR and PPAF at large.  

Scope of the Consultancy 

To evaluate the status of the Olive plantations done so far, along with the grafting of wild olive that has taken place in some areas, to seek technical guidance for their growing in marginal land and in absence of regular rainfall, to select suitable sites for upcoming plantations and build farmers and partners’ staff capacity, PPAF requires the services of a local Senior Consultant for five months (two months in current year and three months in year 2018), for the following tasks:

Visit all the new Olive plantations done by PPR, as well as the zones where the technique of grafting of wild Olive has been adopted under PPR; 

Visit, on random basis according to the time availability, the same Olive plantations of the Italian supported endeavor PIDSA that were surveyed in 2016, in order to evaluate their growing;   

Visit the sites proposed for new Olive plantations by the communities, and develop their layout. The Olive wild plants that could be grafted shall also be part of the activity, upon willingness of the Community to undertake such technique;    

Train POs’ staff and farmers in Olive growing, from the preparation of the land till the pruning; 

inspect the nurseries utilized so far for the supply of the plants to the Programme and assess their reliability in terms of quality of planting material produced. Recommend also other potential nurseries. In absence of reliable available planting material, imported plants may be suggested.    

Methodology 

The Consultant will review all the pertinent documentation already prepared by the Programme on the subject. The Consultant will, in coordination with PPR, carry out the field visits deemed required, as well as will provide the capacity building to POs and Community deemed required. The later activity will be coordinated and organized with POs.   

Expected Outputs/Deliverables:

The consultant will provide a the following two reports;   

Initial Report (for first two months consultancy):

• Assessment of the status of the PPR Olive crops visited, with detailed explanation of the problems encountered (both technical and operational) and the recommended solutions; 
• Assessment of the status of the PIDSA Olive plantations already surveyed in 2016, on randomized manner depending from time availability, with detailed explanation of the problems encountered (both technical and operational) and the recommended solutions; 
• Recommendations, on the grounds of the findings, on how PPR and PPAF at large can better proceed on the basis of lessons learnt during the current interventions;
• Final Report (at the end of 2nd period of consultancy):
• Activity done by the Consultant for capacity building to POs and to Community; 
• Updating, on the light of the findings and wherever deemed appropriate, of the Final Report submitted in 2016 to PPR/PPAF on “Road Map for PPAF to promote Olive Value Chain in Pakistan”. 

Qualification of the Consultant

• Minimum Master in Horticulture, with specialization in Olive or comparable crops
• Minimum ten (10) years of field experience, out of which at least five (5) years spent on Olive crop, working with Public Sector and farmers.  
• Fluency in English and Urdu (speaking and writing). Knowledge of Pashtu and Balochi languages is desirable. 
• Effective use of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel & Power point), Acrobat & GPS. 
• Willing to travel to the field in Balochistan, FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Potohar.