Study on Climate Resilient Agriculture and Food Security in Nepal

The IFC Advisory Services in South Asia is implementing the Climate Resilient Agriculture/Agribusiness Project through the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) in Nepal. The Project will pilot adaptive agricultural products, practices and technologies to increase the productivity of vulnerable resource poor farmers and offset climate change impact thereby contributing to food security. The project will focus on climate resilient and high yielding variety (HYV) seeds and the other agriculture inputs like water management, access to information and access to agri finance. The IFC is looking to hire a team of consultants who will work within the pre-implementation phase of the project. The objective of this assignment is to design a 5-year technical assistance project and assess the investments required to build the capacity of the vulnerable farming communities to adapt to impacts of climate change in three geographical areas (mountains, hills, and plains) in Nepal. The assignment will have two phases. Phase 1 will focus on diagnostic/scoping work and comparative need assessment of the three geographical regions. Phase 2 will involve supporting IFC and the Ministry of Environment (MoE) to design 5-year project. Key objectives are to: Phase 1 identify key climate induced risks faced by the farming communities engaged in the selected priority crop sub-sectors with a special focus on agriculture inputs (seed, water management, fertilizers) and identify potential solutions where private sector can play a role. identify climate change risks in agriculture/agribusiness and develop appropriate agri supply chain finance products and delivery modalities to address the risks of the supply chain members including farmers in the selected priority sub sectors. assess the institutional context under which the supply chain operates and identify key stakeholders (e.g., Commodity Associations) who might play a significant role in enhancing the supply chain. Also identify the role of external facilitators, i.e. the government and donor agencies running development programs. identify the location-specific climate risks and other livelihood challenges and opportunities Phase 2 support IFC in designing the 5 year project to confront the issues identified in the diagnostic (first) phase including: identification of project partners, cost benefit analysis, project time frame, monitoring and results measurement framework, and fund disbursement mechanism for potential investment, etc.