The Technical Assistance Support to Farm Income Diversification Program (FIDP) in Malawi is a fee based technical assistance service contract that will provide long term technical assistance, including associated staff support costs, to the Farm Income Diversification Programme (FIDP), which intends to increase food security and income levels for rural households through agricultural diversification, horticultural marketing, agribusiness development and enhancement of agricultural products, alongside promotion of the sustainable use of soil and water resources. The major innovation of this programme is that it considers farming as a business; it proposes to develop knowledge, skills and entrepreneurial initiatives at local levels in the field of agricultural production and marketing. The Programme also aims to build trade policy capacity at National level. The following are the breakdown of the lots: - Lot One: Programme Coordination and Finance a) One Programme Coordination Expert/Team Leader to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (36 man months). b) One Financial Management Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (36 man months). - Lot Two: Programme Technical Aspects a) One Land Resources Conservation Management Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (32 man months) b) One Agribusiness Development Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (32 man months). c) One Horticultural Marketing Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (32 man months). d) One Agricultural Technology Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (12 man months). - Lot Three: Programme Monitoring and Evaluation a) One Monitoring and Evaluation Expert to the Farm Income Diversification Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture (36 man months). The maximum budgets for each of the lots are broken down as follows: - Lot 1: EUR 964,000/US$ 1,253,200; - Lot 2: EUR 1,190,000/US$ 1,547,000; and - Lot 3: EUR 444,000/US$ 577,200. The provisional date of invitation to tender is on February 2006. The contract is expected to start sometime June 2006. The initial period of execution of the contract will be 36 months. Any further technical assistance will be the subject of a separate tender process. The deadline for submission of applications is 27 January 2006.