Agricultural Consultant

Caritas Lebanon is seeking the services of an experienced agronomist to support Caritas Lebanon in developing a technical 3 year plan for the two gardens. The technical plan should include the garden’s design, an inclusive budget and a workplan.
Description of work:
The aim of this consultancy is to create durable and low-cost garden designs for production of organic fresh vegetables, culinary herbs and fruits among others, as a way to increase access to nutrient rich food for the residents of the shelters as well as to gain income by selling the produce to the social business and in the local market.
To do this, the consultant will conduct site visits to the project areas in order to be able to develop tailor made designs, taking into account space, resources and other constraints. The designs should consider approaches achieving a maximum utilization of local knowledge, and low-cost materials, and take into consideration water and soil qualities as well as the climatic conditions at the two locations. Options such as composting and rainwater harvesting systems are to be considered.

TECHNICAL DELIVERABLES

The consultant is responsible for the submission of the following deliverables for each garden:
Inception report based on the first site visit assessing the garden and highlighting the full methodology of works and expected challenges;
- Project report which includes:
- a detailed narrative description of the concept and the systems proposed
- gardens’ drawings divided into plots and specifying the proposed crops, fruit trees and herbal plants
- detailed work plan for the implementation of works (i.e land preparation, installation of irrigation system, installation of greenhouse, fencing, preparation of organic fertilizers, planting, harvesting etc.);
- vegetable and fruit production forecast: the assessment should provide a sound estimation of how much produce the gardens are expected to generate by crop and cropping season;
- list of training topics that will later inform the training curriculum for the beneficiaries
- Detailed budget and full priced BoQs by garden with technical specifications related to all agricultural tools needed, irrigation scheme, seeds, composting, greenhouse, etc.
Upon approval of the inception report, the consultant will start with the development of the detailed designs for the gardens. Regular coordination will be ongoing between the consultant and CL’s Project Coordinator and field staff.
Once the project report is finalized and approved by CL, the consultant will prepare and submit a full set of tender documents including execution drawings, full priced BoQ, and technical specifications for the gardens.

CONTRACT PERIOD
The intended start date is April 2nd, 2018. The consultant shall terminate the consulting service within 1 month upon contract’s signature and will be remunerated for a total of maximum 15 days.
Based on performance, the consultancy may be extended for new tasks.
Interested candidates shall submit a consultancy proposal, briefly outlining the methodology of work and the requested number of working days (up to 15) and corresponding daily rate.

CONDITIONS
- The consultant has to abide by the terms of the contract.
- The consultant has to coordinate with Caritas Lebanon team throughout the phases of each study period, to inform on the progress of the work and the difficulties faced.
- Any changes for any reason must go through formal channels of official correspondence.
- Complete filing of studies becomes the property of Caritas Lebanon program, and consultant is prevented to use research materials and the results of the studies outside the scope of the projects.
- Intellectual property belonging to Caritas Lebanon program.
- The consultant will be assisted, and accompanied by Caritas Lebanon team, in particular the Field Officers during field surveys, meetings and other.
- The consultant could use the assistance of Project Managers and Field Officers in the collection of data, conduct surveys and taking photos.
- The consultant has to respect deadlines.
- The consultant is expected to present the assessments to CL team in person and be available to address questions and clarifications that may arise when CL team will write the project proposal to be submitted to BMZ