Background
AGRA is an African-led, African-based not-for-profit organization established in 2006. Its mission is to catalyse an agricultural transformation across Africa by providing and scaling innovative-driven technologies and practices to improve sustainable productivity and expand access to finance and markets, thus empowering smallholder farmers and improving their livelihoods.
Working with African governments, the private sector, civil society institutions, and development partners in the African agricultural landscape, AGRA is committed to catalyzing the agricultural transformation needed to improve food systems in the continent. This will accelerate the achievement of the Malabo Declaration commitments and related indicators from the Kampala commitments on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Sustainable Development Goals, and Africa’s Agenda 2063.
Rationale
Agriculture is one of the fundamental pillars of Mozambique’s economic and social development, with around 80% of the population depending on it. The country has approximately 36 million hectares of arable land (PEDSA, 2023), of which 29.2 million have the irrigation potential (National Irrigation Programme, 2017). Therefore, agricultural mechanization plays a central role in driving sustainable rural development. Currently, less than 20 percent of smallholder farmers use mechanization in Mozambique. Mechanization of agricultural production coupled with best agronomic management practices, aggregated pieces of land or large farm sizes, market linkages and access to finance provides an opportunity for growth of the agriculture sector while addressing high and intensive labour requirements. This includes mechanization at different segments of the value chain including post-harvest and processing. Experience in Africa has provided evidence that mechanization service provision has the potential to increase farmer yields, double farmers’ income, reduce drudgery and production costs substantially. The Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries- Ministério de Agricultura, Ambiente e Pescas (MAAP) has developed a new mechanization strategy which aims to leverage the key lessons and opportunities from existing experience and be adjustable to the current environment and demands of the agricultural sector in Mozambique. However, there are structural challenges in mechanization service provision for smallholder farmers that prevent desired success on scale. Some of these gaps are limited know-how in operating existing machines, limited access and availability of mechanization equipment by smallholder farmers, inadequate mechanization service providers, local skills/artisans to maintain and repair equipment are scattered farmland within Mozambique. Scaling mechanization service provision is more than a simple transition to modern technologies; It is a journey towards the transformation of the Mozambican agricultural sector, aiming to improve productivity, reduce economic disparities and promote food security for smallholder farmers who account for a surmountable portion of food production in the country.
Objectives
Implementing mechanization service provision can drastically improve the overall performance of food and agribusinesses, giving them a competitive edge in the market. However, bridging the gap between traditional and modern farming practices is often fraught with challenges, such as knowledge barriers, cost concerns, and incompatibility fears. To improve the current understanding of the mechanization service provision landscape in Mozambique and to guide the successful commercialization of mechanization service provision, AGRA is looking for a consultant/firm to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the mechanization landscape in Mozambique. This will guide future Mechanization interventions for the respective corridors to ensure transformative and sustainable development. This assignment aims to identify the status, gaps, and opportunities existing in the country’s agricultural Mechanization and see how digital systems can be leveraged to reach last-mile delivery. Such information will provide the basis for designing appropriate positive interventions to address the gaps and strengthen (and scale) existing efforts. The major focus will also be on ensuring youth and women participation in the mechanization interventions.
Scope of Work
The expectation for the consultant is to review multiple dimensions of mechanization service provision along the entire agricultural value chain and how to leverage digital systems and solutions to commercialize mechanization service provision especially for youth and women. The scope of the assessment is described as follows:
i. Stocktaking and profiling of the mechanization service currently offered in Mozambique. The consultant will look at reports on issues, like right leadership, structures and competencies, processes, tools, and strategies (both internal and external), human resources, access to markets, financial resources, and information resources including data collection and knowledge management system to drive the implementation of mechanization and digital systems and solutions for transformative agriculture development in Mozambique.
ii. Mapping the Mechanization Service Providers in Mozambique (including geo-referencing) in relation to the demand and needs of farmers for mechanization services focusing on youth and women alongside other farmers. The questions to be addressed at the levels of MSMEs and farmers will focus on whether they understand the opportunities and value propositions that arise from utilizing mechanization and digital systems in agriculture as well as understanding the existing mechanization business models in Mozambique. Additionally, to explore the systemic challenges they face and identify actions that can be taken to increase the adoption and scaling of these technologies.
iii. Profiling the challenges and opportunities in the Mechanization sub-sector in Mozambique for both the public and private sectors. Government level: To what extent does the government have the capacity to bankroll mechanization and digital systems and solutions? What partnerships (and business models) are needed to drive this sector especially financial services provision?
iv. Case Studies of the Best Practices on Mechanization Innovations – Business Models for Mechanization provision
v. Coordination of such initiatives through platforms or any other systems to ensure seamless provision of services to the different players in the system.
Duration
The work will be conducted over 4 months and the consultant shall explicitly indicate the level of effort needed for the tasks to be assigned.
Qualifications and Experience
i. Academic qualifications
a) Master’s degree/MBA in a relevant field, Agribusiness, Agriculture, Strategy, Engineering or Development Studies.
b) Working knowledge of mechanization service provision
c) At least ten years of relevant work experience in business strategy development and Agriculture Mechanization, Digital Technology and development of Use Cases
ii. Experience of the consultant
We seek to engage a consultant who has a combination of these areas of expertise to deliver on this task.
