RFP for Data Collection - Crop Cutting Study

In 2017, Solidaridad commenced “Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative in Karnataka” interventions in partnership with Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. and supported by Coca Cola Foundation to promote good agronomical and climate smart agriculture (CSA) in sugarcane farming. This project focuses on sustainable sugarcane production through climate smart agriculture practices in the area of four units namely Athani, Kolavi, Munoli, (Belgaum district) and Havalga (Gulbarga district).

 

The activities were undertaken towards addressing the gaps in sugarcane farming and scaling the adoption of climate smart agriculture practices through targeted demonstration and capacity building. In the inception, a baseline study was performed to strategize and suggest a package of practices based on environmental analysis for sustainably higher yields at all four locations. Based on that, continuous interventions and monitoring were done to ensure sustainable yield and recovery improvements in sugarcane. The emphasis is made on cultivation cost saving, soil health improvement, water saving, promoting the use of bio fertilizers, balanced use of organic fertilizers, mechanization and other sustainability driven practices so as to minimize the risks of farmers and businesses. Making the sugarcane production value chain sustainable remains the core of the interventions made on the field.

Crop Cutting Study

2.1 Purpose and Objective:

To measure the rate of adoption of CSA and understand its impact on yield, Solidaridad plans to conduct an end-line yield assessment study. The purpose of the study will include, but not limited to:

Conduct Crop Cutting with the sampled farmers following prescribed protocols

Collect data on specified questions developed by Solidaridad. 

Methodology:

The plot selected for crop cutting shall be of the farmer who has been selected through sampling by Solidaridad. The land size should be appropriate to get proper data from 2 segments of 5x5 meter from 2 diagonally opposite corners which are diagonally 7.01 meter apart.  Proper field marking, weighing and data recording should be followed as per standard guidelines.

Additionally, we would like to propose that to re-test the method of crop cutting, the selected agency will conduct crop cutting with 10-15 farmers which will be followed by a full harvesting by the company. The results will be compared and necessary adjustments to the crop cutting methodology will be followed. It is expected that the agency will recalculate the deductions through a proper assessment of the waste generated while undertaking the crop cutting exercise. 

We have a total 24,000 and 11,000 farmers in Belgaum district and Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) district project areas in Karnataka respectively. In Belgaum district, the project covers 10,500 in Munoli, 8,500 in Athani (Kokatnur) and 5,000 in Kolavi. The data collection will be done for a total of 772 farmers from two project districts- Belgaum and Gulbarga (Kalaburagi). It would be collected for 372 farmers in Havalga (Gulbarga district) and 400 farmers in Belgaum district (Athani-150, Munoli-150 and Kolavi-100). The sample size is calculated based on 95% confidence level and 5 % margin of error.

The data on specified indicators will be collected during the crop cutting exercise. A structured questionnaire will be provided by Solidaridad on which information has to be collected by the agency. 

Activities:

The following activities need to be performed by the consultants /consulting firm while undertaking the data collection:

• Prepare and share an implementation plan for data collection from the field
• Implement data collection - this includes both data collection and supervision of the process to ensure high quality and fidelity of the data collected; 
• Provide entire dataset of cleaned data collected on field;
• Share key findings such as yield and adoption of good agriculture practices at the time of data collection and in the final report
• Team Composition and Requirements:
• The agency will need to have experience in crop cutting. The agency should meet the following criteria: 
• The consulting firm must have previous working experience in similar studies;
• Understanding of the language, socio-political and economic situation in Karnataka;
• Strong leadership, coordination, work planning and implementation;
• Methodological/technical knowledge and experience to carry out crop cutting study;

Timeframe for Impact:

The data collection will be carried out over a period of 3 months. The tentative time schedule will be:

Date	Activity
By 27th October, 2021	Inception meeting (online)
1st Nov 2021- 15th  Jan 2022	Data collection in Belgaum district, Karnataka
1st Nov 2021 – 15th  Jan 2022	Data collection in Gulbarga district, Karnataka
By 25th Jan, 2022	Share cleaned data /draft report collected on field
By 31st Jan, 2022	Final Report

General terms

• Solidaridad reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal without giving any verbal and/or written rationale;
• The intellectual Property rights for all reports and documents prepared during the assignment will be with Solidaridad;
• The reports/documents or any part, therefore, cannot be sold, used and reproduced in any manner without prior written approval of Solidaridad;
• Solidaridad reserves the right to monitor the quality and progress of the work during the assignment;
• Solidaridad will reserve the right to extent or cancel the agreement (if required).
• SREC reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals, or any item or part thereof, or to waive any informalities or irregularities in proposals.
• SREC reserves the right to withdraw this RFP at any time without prior notice and SREC makes no representations that any contract will be awarded to any Proposer responding to this RFP.

Submission of Proposals

It is the Proposer’s sole responsibility to see that its proposal is received as stipulated below.

Date and Time

Proposals must be submitted on or before 5:30 p.m. on 25th October 2021

Proposals received after the above-specified date and time shall be considered nonresponsive.

Address

Proposals shall be submitted to the following:

Solidaridad Regional Expertise Centre

A-5, 1st Floor, Shankar Garden, Main Najafgarh Road, 

Vikas Puri, New Delhi – 110018, India

Attention: Ms. Geeta Rawat

Email : procurementdelhi@solidaridad.in                                                 

Identification of Proposals 

Email shall have marked with the subject as:

Data collection- Crop Cutting Study Acceptance of Proposals 

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