Agro-Enterprise Consultant – AIP Rural

Background of the Project and Assignment

The Government of Indonesia partners with the Government of Australia on an initiative to boost smallholder farmers’ incomes: The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Rural Economic Development (AIP-Rural).

 

AIP-Rural is a suite of programs that improves smallholder farmers’ access to new markets, better inputs, knowhow, technology, irrigation, and small loans. Its goal is to achieve a sustainable 30% increase in the net incomes of 1,000,000 male and female smallholder farmers in Eastern Indonesia by 2022. AIP-Rural operates in East Java, West and East of Nusa Tenggara, Papua and West Papua.

 

The program focuses on agricultural sectors that display strong growth potential and are the main source of income for many smallholder farmers. All of this is done via co-investing in new business models with local, regional, national and international market players to create business models that improve the agriculture sector’s competitiveness, especially for smallholder farmers.

 

AIP-Rural’s four programs are:

 

Promoting Rural Income through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA)

A program dedicated to supporting the Government of Indonesia’s mid-term development strategy to eradicate rural poverty. The program aims to improve agriculture competitiveness – productivity, profit, access to new or better markets, and innovation – for rural farmers. PRISMA aims to achieve a 30% increase in the net incomes of 300,000 male and female smallholder farmers in Eastern Indonesia by the program’s completion.

 

Tertiary Irrigation Technical Assistance (TIRTA)

TIRTA is a program that aims to improve smallholder farmers’ access to irrigation. It supports the creation of tertiary irrigation schemes that are managed by HIPPA (water user associations) and local investors (lead farmers or local entrepreneurs). The program’s goal is to increase the net income of 10,000 farmers by 60% through improvements to the efficiency, technical and economic viability of at least 35 tertiary irrigation projects.

 

Strengthening Agriculture Finance in Rural Areas (SAFIRA)

This is a program that improves smallholder farmers’ access to essential financial services, such as business and investment capital loans. The program facilitates a financial service model that can answer to farmers’ specific needs through a partnership between formal and informal financial institutions in rural areas. The program will also expand smallholder farmers’ financial access through key market stakeholders (including but not limited to input retailers, collectors, traders and manufacturing companies) in the value chain.

 

Applied Research and Innovation System in Agriculture (ARISA)

ARISA is a partnership between Indonesia’s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and Australia’s science and technology think tank, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), that aims to disseminate applied and adaptive research in agriculture that will have practical and significant impacts on the incomes of farmers. Its goal is to support innovations that can increase the incomes of 10,000 small farmers in Eastern Indonesia by the end of 2018.

 

Papua is naturally endowed with agricultural potential given its favorable soil, water, and climatic conditions. Horticulture farming dominated agriculture business in West Papua whereas 47,940 household worked in horticulture farming or 68 percent of total number of farmer household. Smallholder farmers in Papua and West Papua continue to face challenges in their efforts to improve their incomes due to number of factors. These factors include low price levels received from middlemen/traders, limited access to market information and lack of opportunities for adding value to their produce for better market prices. These factors are further compounded by climate change in recent times that further heightens smallholder farmer’s insecurity in an unpredictable environment.

 

In response to this situation, PRISMA aim at enabling rural farmers in Papua and West Papua to enhance their agricultural business skills and more economic approach which means farmers needed to be more organized. Thus this assignment is aimed at conducting pilot project for supporting farmers as agro-enterprise to engage market actors in a manner that will provide better market access and price.

 

Purpose of The Position

The purpose of the consultancy is to support PRISMA in designing and developing agro-enterprise as pilot project in West Papua.

Application

Read the full details and how to apply here: Palladium-AgroEnterprise

Applications close on 28^th February 2018. 

Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

 

Responsibilities

• Develop feasibility study of creating an Agro-enterprise that focuses on farmers’market access for vegetables sector in West Papua.
• Map all market actors and identify farmer opportunities to improve access to high value market segments across value chains. This will include economic analysis of different marketing strategies and targeted segments.
• Assess demand and supply of vegetable market in West Papua.

Requirements

• At least master’s degree in development studies, Agricultural economics, Agri-business management, or any other relevant university degree.
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in Agro-enterprise establishment.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the basic concepts of market-based value chain analysis on vegetable.
• Experience in conducting market studies.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

Functional Relationships

This position reports to the PRISMA Vegetable West Papua Business Consultant.