Company Profile

Nathan, a Cadmus Company is a leading provider of analytic and economic consultancy services worldwide. In the past decade, we have implemented more than 120 projects in more than 50 countries leveraging our global presence in Washington DC, London, and India. From improved transparency and deeper stakeholder engagement to more effective policies and more resilient businesses, we deliver results that impact economic growth, human development, and poverty reduction. We are passionate about applying our deep analytical expertise and advanced proprietary tools to generate economic solutions tailored to our clients’ unique challenges.  Nathan focuses on a range of economic development subject matter areas including Trade & Logistics; Economic Policy & Governance; Private Sector Development; Women’s Economic Empowerment; and Financial Solutions. 

Job Description

Background

The Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI) Activity seeks to improve the enabling environment for Ghana’s economic growth by (1) Facilitating trade (2) improving and developing product standards; (3) catalyzing investments in private enterprises related to high-value commercial crops; (4) promoting job creation, particularly among women and youth; (5) promoting economic diversification; and (6) increasing foreign exchange revenues from high-value export crops. GTI will facilitate investing in firms that trade goods across borders, spur innovation, and build the capacity of the entire trade sector.  

GIRSAL has partnered with industry institutions to initiate commercial pilot project trials for the export of chilli pepper to the EU market using net house technology to meet the phytosanitary requirements of the market. This move is part of GIRSAL’s 5-year strategic plan to support export-related value chains such as vegetables, avocado, mango, and pomegranate, as well as import substitutes like rice, broiler chicken, maize, tomato, and cassava. The project partners include USAID Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI), the co-financing partner; VegPro, the technical partner; the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA_PPRSD), which regulates and licenses producers and exporters; and Yara, which provides agrochemicals for the trial farm.

The project has identified four locations for the commercial trials, namely the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme in the Greater Accra region, Keyime_Ziope, Woadze in the Volta region, and Kyekyewere in the Eastern region. The main objective is to establish and validate the concept of a business case for chili production in net houses. To achieve this, the project aims to establish production protocols, determine the costs of setting up production equipment and infrastructure such as net houses and irrigation, and measure the production output and expected revenue per hectare.  The goal is to increase the country's foreign exchange earnings by attracting more financing to the sector and promoting the production and export of non-traditional agricultural commodities that meet the market specifications. Against this backdrop, GIRSAL wishes to engage an individual consultant to develop a net house chili production manual for the industry. The consultant would be an expert in the horticulture industry, an expert in vegetable production and manual production development and have previously performed similar tasks.  

Position Summary

GTI is seeking a consultant to develop a net house chilli production protocol manual for the horticultural industry to facilitate and increase chilli production and export in the country. The manual should address critical components such as net house structure set-up, basic infrastructure required, design and drawings, good agricultural practices, crop cycle, marketing, processing, key risks and their mitigations along the value chain, and profitability analysis.

Responsibilities

• Develop a manual addressing issues that will be useful and serve as a reference point for investors, producers, exporters and financial institutions in appraising loan facilities.
• Collate data from the project implementation sites to guide manual development
• Draw from best practice materials to develop the content.
• Detailed description of net house structure set-up, design and drawings
• Detailed description of nursery set-up, maintenance, management and challenges
• Detailed description of irrigation and other infrastructures required for production.
• Provide a description of key agricultural practices in the production process, including pre-harvest and post-harvest activities.
• Develop module on fertilization protocols and application regimes
• Details description of pests, causative agents, control and preventive measures
• Details description of diseases, causative agents, control and preventive measures.
• Develop module on pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and their application methods
• Develop module on markets and marketing
• Develop module on key risks and mitigation measures.
• Develop a general template for production costing and profitability analysis

Level of Effort

• The assignment will be executed over a two-month period starting from the date the contract is awarded.

Deliverables

• Draft Chili Production Manual to confirmation from net house structure set up, nursery management, production and postharvest activities.
• Graphic Design and Illustration for the Chili Production Manual.
• Final and approved chili Production Manual.

Required Skills or Experience

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in relevant agriculture disciplines.
• Have practical knowledge of the vegetable production and horticulture industry.
• Previous experience with the development of production manuals.
• Good understanding of the value chain concept.
• Good understanding of production budgeting, costing and profitability
• Excellent communication and writing skills