Background
Nutrition is a national priority in Rwanda’s development agenda. Our Combatting Malnutrition through Sustainable Food Systems (CMRFS) program supports this by strengthening supply chains for nutritious foods like beans. The purpose of this RFP is to engage the services of a qualified organisation in Rwanda to implement a market-based system that increases high iron bean (HIB) production by smallholder farmers and farmer cooperatives in Western Province. This includes, but is not limited to, increasing the acceptability/uptake of improved HIB seeds obtained by farmers through the formal seed system, and strengthening the formal seed system supply chain to ensure consistent farmers’ access to these improved seeds.
The opportunity for this partnership will
•Work with 50 farmer cooperatives to increase adoption of HIB seeds and see the ROI from increased yields
•Establish and strengthen local multiplication of HIB seeds
•Improve last-mile availability of HIB seed varieties.
•Build farmer capacity on best farming practices for HIB seed varieties to improve yields
•Ultimately increase the supply and affordability of HIB seeds within Western Province.