National Capacity Building/SPS Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized technical agency of the United Nations. The FAO mission is to work toward the eradication of hunger and strive for food security for everyone as stated in the 2030 Agenda. The FAO’s Strategic Framework aspires to transform agri-food systems so that they are more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. The ultimate goals of these efforts include better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better lives, while leaving no one behind.

The FAO projects in Nepal currently involve building technical capacity, developing policies, enhancing agri-production, strengthening food systems, improving food & nutrition security, and mitigating the adverse impact of natural disasters and climate change. The FAO also embraces the One Health approach to address threats posed by zoonotic diseases to human health. Within the framework of the food security cluster, the FAO helps to coordinate humanitarian assistance and the recovery of livelihoods in the agriculture sector.

The FAO endeavours to eradicate hunger and malnutrition through its global initiatives. The key priorities of the Country Programming Framework (CPF) for Nepal (2018-22) entail improving stakeholder capacity for the adoption of appropriate inclusive and gender responsive technology, knowledge, and inputs for improved income generation from crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry interventions.

Furthermore, developing the Special Agriculture Products (SAPs) value chain and investing in greening their production, storage, processing, and market is important to transform traditional agrifood systems to be more sustainable, efficient, resilient and inclusive.

The Capacity building/SPS Specialist will work with the national and regional offices of the FAO along with the relevant government counterparts to develop and implement activities that support the realization of the project objectives.

Background/about the project:

FAO launched One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) aims to develop green and sustainable value chains for special agricultural products, support small and family farmers reap the full benefits of a global market for the transformation of food systems to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable system. It serves as a guiding principle and an innovative business model for FAO support to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) This would also aim to promote a Global Action on Green Development of Special Agricultural Products (SAPs) which have unique qualities and special characteristics associated with geographical locations, farming practices, and cultural heritages. OCOP initiative builds upon the “One Village One Product (OVOP)” strategy implemented in different countries, which emphasized that the cultivation of various types of business entities and integrated green agriculture were keys to success.

Considering the recent OCOP initiative of FAO and previous experience of implementing OVOP/ ODOP in Nepal, the large cardamom has been identified for its promotion. It is an Important cash crop of Nepal in terms of contributing to local economy and export trade.

This project will contribute to increased access to the virus free seedlings, production of high-quality products (cardamom fruits) and access to the diversified markets through enhanced capacity of the value chain actors. In addition, it will pave the way for attaining value-addition, employment, and income-generation for sustained livelihoods of upland farmers. The project will be implemented at a pilot scale in mid-hills of Eastern Nepal

Key issues:

Although the large cardamom has been a promising crop having high profitability and income generating enterprise, the pace of expansion in terms of area coverage and quality improvement has become very slow. Its promotion as a commercial enterprise is constrained due to inadequate technical knowledge and skills of the farmers on pre-production and post-harvest, appropriate technology for processing and storage to maintain its quality and weak linkages and network with actors at different nodes of value chain. Moreover, in the recent past, crop disease has become a norm in the hills producing large cardamom, leading to growing expenditure on disease management and crop losses. Targeted interventions to improve conditions for producers and create opportunities for them to improve the product at the farming level through introduction of sustainable production system and managing associated risks-disease and pest can extend the benefits of the farmers. The above-mentioned issues and challenges result in a high level of frustration among the Nepalese cardamom growers, who have no option but to rely on the transparency and honesty of the Nepalese buyers with regard to price, post-harvest losses or quality parameters. Therefore, almost all of the cardamom produced is purchased by Nepalese traders directly from farmers and cooperatives and exported mainly to India. Inadequate drying facilities, inappropriate technique of drying of fresh harvest, and inappropriate storage facilities at farmers and traders’ level are reported by traders to be a significant cause of post-harvest losses. This TCP, expected to address some of the mentioned issues through expansion of market windows & Product Diversification opportunities including post-harvest management.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent works under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Nepal, the direct supervision of Assistant FAOR (Programme), and the technical supervision of the Lead Technical Officer, RAP/HQs

Technical Focus

Prepare the project inception report and support the smooth implementation of the project’s activities in accordance with the project document and work plan.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Contribute to the smooth implementation of the project’s activities in accordance with the project document and work plan. • Responsible for the preparation of inception report, including annual work plan, procurement plan and get approval from LTO. • Carry out an assessment of the disease and pest incidence prevalent in cardamom production districts and suggest control measures to manage them. • Provide support for the selection of healthy planting materials from promising varieties and for their subsequent multiplication and production of quality saplings. • Identify production clusters, form producers’ organization/groups, and prepare cluster level production plan (participatory basis). • Develop GAP standards and guidelines. Develop FFS modality, and implement GAP in the production clusters • Develop training curricula and materials and deliver Training of Farmers Facilitators (TOF) for the FFS. • Establish Model Cardamom Demonstration farm- for the demonstration purpose, following SPS standards. • Ensure the support of input/assets, services, and capacity buildings to the beneficiaries in coordination with government counterparts and project thematic experts for planning and implementation. • Support to organize capacity building training to the concerned Government officials and technicians (local level extension workers) sector on disease free healthy sapling production using tissue culture and rapid propagation technique in the screen houses, Quality Assurance System GAP standards, SPS measures, traceability and requirement for trade promotion, internal quarantine system to control for further spread of diseases to other potential areas etc. • Support to organize exposure visits inside the country for the selected leader farmers to best performing farms to learn on best practices of cardamom production and processing (seeing by believing) • Support to develop IEC materials (printed materials, newspaper articles, and audio/video) success stories to launch the mass media campaign for creating awareness on different aspects of Large Cardamom produced in Nepal in coordination with other national consultants of the project. • Support to organize meetings, interaction and sharing workshops at local and national level on the project results in coordination with other national/International consultants. • Monitor project progress and discuss on the various implementation and coordination issues at the field and central level with various stakeholder to make best use of available resources and timely completion of project activities. • Submit regular progress reports, final, and end-of-assignment reports listing the activities implemented. • Facilitate formulation of a full project framework document capitalizing the lesson learnt and best practices validated for upscaling and wider replication of the project results. • Provide any other support necessary to the project and requested by the FAO CO team and RAP/HQ.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• National or Resident of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal • Master’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., Agri business, Information and Communication, Computer Science, Rural development, Quantitative Methods or Development Studies etc.) • At least five years of post-baccalaureate proven work experience on digital agriculture and/or rural development. • Working knowledge of English and Nepali

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus • Teamwork • Communication • Building Effective Relationships • Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Strong technical skills on designing training curricula and delivering agriculture trainings • Skills establishing FFS and facilitating conduction of Farmer Field School (FFS) • Proficiency in technical report writing and technical programme document preparation • Computer skills in Office applications including Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint • Knowledge on Good Agriculture Practice (GAP)

Selection Criteria

• Demonstrated practical and relevant experience in designing and conducting trainings in agriculture for the farmers and technical staff including officers • Knowledge on Farmer Field School • Knowledge on the major problem of Large Cardamom production in Nepal and possible solutions to address them • Ability to manage and work with a multidisciplinary and multicultural team • Proven ability to network sensitively, cooperatively, and productively with multiple stakeholders • High degree of team ethics, well-organized, results-focused and dynamic personality • Proficiency in English and Nepali language (both spoken and written) with good communication skills • Previous experience working with UN agencies and INGOs in similar nature of Job is an asset