Consultancy for Establishment and Monitoring of Environmentally Friendly Weed Management Coffee Production Areas

TERMS OF REFERENCE

CONSULTANCY FOR

Establishment and Monitoring of Environmentally Friendly Weed Management Coffee Production Areas in the provinces of Dak Nong and Gia Lai

1.      Introduction

The Global Coffee Platform (GCP) is an inclusive multi-stakeholder sustainability platform that convenes coffee stakeholders, prioritizes sustainability issues and catalyzes local action and progress measurement in collaboration with country platforms to create a thriving and sustainable coffee sector. Members of the Global Coffee Platform include farmers and farmer organizations, traders (exporters and importers), coffee roasters and retailers, other supply chain actors, civil society organizations, coffee associations and others.

GCP’s Collective Action Initiatives (CAI) optimize sustainability investments and multiply impact through pooling resources, knowledge, and networks to collectively address country specific sustainability gaps. By partnering with GCP, participants of a CAI support the coffee sector to identify and address complex issues through a structured and collaborative approach.

In June 2020, GCP Vietnam launched a 5-year Collective Action Initiative for effective and responsible use and management of Agro-inputs in Vietnam, which focuses on addressing the responsible use of Agro-inputs (especially herbicides) in the coffee sector in Vietnam by improving the enabling environment and sector policies, providing support and training to farmers and stakeholders in the Central Highlands and conducting research to gather and document best practices and lessons learned. Results of the Initiative will be shared with Vietnamese and International coffee sector stakeholders in order to upscale best practices. The Initiative has drawn high attention and commitments from roasters, including Nestlé, JDE and Tchibo as well as from organizations and coffee trading companies as the Sustainable Trade Initiative – IDH, the Lavazza Foundation, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe- NKG and Sucden is being promoted to additional interested actors to participate in this initiative.

Being put into official operation since 2020, up to now, the CAI has gained some initial research results including many interesting findings and useful information that can be shared with the Government and stakeholders to lobby for elimination of the use of banned Agro- chemicals, especially the ones containing Glyphosate in coffee production.

EU currently applies a requirement of Maximum Residue Level (MRL) of 0.1 mg/kg of green bean coffee imported to this market and tends to reduce the required MRL down to 0.05 mg/kg of GB. However, results of the survey named “Geographical Mapping of Glyphosate Residues in Central Highlands of Vietnam “conducted by the Initiative have shown that among 378 samples of green beans taken for LAB analyses, 56% of them exceeded the MRL of 0.1 mg/kg of GB with average MRL found 0.148 mg/kg.

According to the original design, the GCP is not a direct implementation of the initiative, while the target set for the initiative is quite ambitious, i.e. over a period of more than 4 years, the messages of the initiative should be reaching 200,000 coffee farmers in 05 provinces in the Central Highlands. To that end, the Initiative will have to rely heavily on both public and private partners who directly implement sustainability projects and programs at the field level.

Although the Government has made decisions to completely ban the sale and use of glyphosate-containing herbicides as of July 1, 2021, the trade and use of this chemical is still taking place openly without an end. In this context, the Vietnamese coffee industry is facing the risk of being unable to access the European market due to the strict requirements of this market on pesticide/herbicide residues, especially Glyphosate MRL in the coffee bean product. Therefore, to quickly achieve the set objectives, the Initiative intends to carry out a number of additional activities as direct interventions at the field level in the hotspots of Glyphosate use, which were identified by the above-mentioned survey.

In this context, GCP is looking for consulting services to set up and monitor 04 Environmentally Friendly Weed Management Coffee Production Areas in the provinces of Dak Nong and Gia Lai

2.      Objectives

The main objectives of this assignment are:

1. Introducing environmentally friendly weed management practices including cover crops, mechanical and biological alternatives… (Building proof of concept on integrated weed management)  in order to comply with regulatory MRL requirements of the coffee destination countries;
2. Eliminating the use of glyphosate and other hazardous Agro-inputs through training and awareness raising activities for farmers and stakeholders;
3. Measuring the adoption rate of good weed management practices by farmers benefiting from the Initiative’s direct interventions and
4. Comparing the different practices + Monitoring impact on labour & cost.

Specifically, the consultant is expected to:

1. Set up and monitor the environmentally friendly weed management coffee areas;
2. Providing training (TOT and TOF) on the topics required by the employer;
3. Monitor and evaluate the farmers’ adoption rates of good weeding practices recommended by the Initiative;
4. Provide quarterly and annual reports;
5. Disseminate the results and recommendations to public and private Coffee Sector‘s stakeholders

3.      Focus areas

These proposed direct interventions will focus on the two districts of Dak Nong and Gia Lai, which are major coffee producing areas and the hottest spots identified by the Initiative, where farmers use the most glyphosate-containing herbicides:

1. Krong No district of Dak Nong province with a coffee area of 12,100 ha, owned by circa 12,000 farming households, from which 2 sustainable production areas consisting of 3,000 ha owned by 3,000 farming households (1,500 ha each) will be established and monitored.
2. Chu Se district of Gia Lai province, with a coffee area of 7,177 ha owned by about 7,000 families, from which 2 production areas consisting of 2,000 ha owned by 2,000 farming households (1,000 ha each) will be established and monitored.

Thus, the total number of direct beneficiaries will be around 5,000 farming households who will be  informed of good and environmentally friendly weed management methods and practices with the adoption rate of over 60%.

4.      Duration

The elimination of hazardous Agro-chemicals including herbicides as Glyphosate and Paraquat use in coffee production is a complex issue that will not be resolved over a short period. Continuous efforts and joint actions are required to effectively advance because it involves a number of factors, including culture, tradition, education, technology, law enforcement, policies, etc..

Therefore, the extra activities will be implemented for circa 03 years (from March 2022 to December 2024). The results will be evaluated, lessons will be drawn and shared so that partners, including extension services in both public and private sectors can replicate the best models and practices as well as the most effective alternative methods.

5.      Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

6.      Consultant qualification

For this assignment we expect an agriculture consultant/service provider who brings the following assets/experiences:

• Experienced and knowledgeable about coffee agronomy;
• Having at least 10 years working experiences in plant protection/agriculture sector and agricultural extension services;
• Education background (Master, preferably PhD degree) on plant protection, agriculture, community development and/or education);
• Neutral and trusted;
• Fluency in both Vietnamese and English languages and 
• Clear communicator, capable of translating complex information into an accessible and understandable format. 

7.      Procedures

The procedure will be as follows:

• Announcement of the assignment:  18 February 2022  
• Submission of proposals plus quotations by candidates: prior to 28 February 2022  
• Criteria for assessment of the  proposals:

• Evaluation of the candidates’ proposals and decision made on selection of consultant
• Contract signing:   07 March 2022

8.      Contact information

For any question, please contact Ms. Le Phuong Tu – Project Officer, via email: [email protected] [1]