Myanmar_Capacity Building and Climate Smart Agriculture Training Consultants

The Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project supports implementing the government’s Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS), 2018-2023 and the National Export Strategy, 2015-2019 by boosting competitiveness in value chains for rice, beans, pulses, and oilseeds in the Magway, Mandalay, and Sagaing regions in the Central Dry Zone (CDZ). The project will increase climate resilience for critical rural infrastructure, promote quality and safety testing capacity, strengthen technical and institutional capacity for climate smart agriculture (CSA), and create an enabling policy environment for climate-friendly agribusinesses. The project will reduce food insecurity and rural poverty, increase smallholders’ incomes and access to markets, and improve resource efficiency and environmental sustainability for agribusinesses.

The project aims to create an enabling environment that reduces the incidence of poverty, malnutrition, and food insecurity among the rural poor. The project is aligned with the following impact: agricultural competitiveness improved. The project will have the following outcome: productive and resource-efficient agribusiness value chains in project areas developed.

The scope of work includes:

• Together with the policy unit, agribusiness policy specialists, PIC Team Leader, and the MOC, prepare a workplan for developing various product quality, food safety, manufacturing, and other standards (at farmgate, post-storage, post-processing, and pre-export) and/or codes of practice along the value chains of the targeted agricultural commodities;
• Assist the Technical Committee of the National Standards Committee and the MOC in developing appropriate standards for the project’s targeted commodities, including setting specifications and minimum requirements for certification, labelling and marking;
• Working closely with the climate smart agribusiness specialist and the IA, develop food safety management systems appropriate for the milling of rice and the processing of pulses, beans, and oilseeds by o integrating Good Manufacturing Practices and HACCP into the management systems; o aligning HACCP with ISO 22000 Food Safety Management into the systems
• Conduct workshops with direct and indirect stakeholders of the targeted value chains for presentation and discussion of drafted standards, both Government regulated as well as voluntary standards;
• Advocate for the approval of the drafted standards that come under Government regulation;
• Work closely with the IA and the direct stakeholders in getting industrial support for the drafted voluntary standards;
• Develop an implementation plan for integrating the various standards and food safety management systems into the value chain activities.