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International Fertilizer Development Center Jobs Apply

Short-Term Consultant- Mapping of Organo-Mineral Fertilizers - Soil Values - Office of Programs - Africa



Current Job Openings --> Full Time --> Full Time Africa

Abuja
 • 
ID: 20121519
 • 
Full-Time/Regular

About IFDC 

IFDC is a public international organization active in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems, enabling policy environments, and strategic partnerships that assist farmers and countries to identify and bring to scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency. The approaches are needed to boost soil health, its productivity as well as enhancing crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact-oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, and safeguard the soil on which our lives depend. These are done alongside building the economic resilience of farming households and the countries in which they live.    

 

Responsibilities 

  • Provide a comprehensive, evidence-based overview of the entire fertilizer ecosystem from production and import to distribution and end-use to identify bottlenecks, opportunities, and strategic entry points for program interventions and policy advocacy; 

  • Map agricultural inputs to determine availability, distribution, and actors across the supply chain strengthening collaboration, improving resource allocation, and targeting underserved areas, particularly those affecting smallholders, women, and youth; 

  • Support long-term policy development and monitoring providing a foundation to improve regulatory frameworks, harmonize standards, and ensure access to affordable, quality fertilizers, including organic inputs; 

  • Conduct a comprehensive sector analysis identifying and assessing all key actors from producers to end-users evaluating their dynamism, organization, and role in the supply chain; 

  • Lead a physical mapping initiative, geo-locating and visualizing major supply sources, including production units and sales points to produce detailed maps illustrating distribution networks and density; 

  • Assess the spatial distribution and economic factors affecting fertilizer availability and accessibility, including prices, market margins, and practical barriers faced by farmers; 

  • Conduct a thorough review of relevant policies, regulations, and standards governing the fertilizer sector; 

  • Synthesize findings to identify principal constraints to adopting integrated fertilization practices and develop actionable, evidence-based recommendations tailored for program designers, policymakers, and private sector actors. 

  1. Objectives of the Assignment 

To produce an updated mapping and analyze the supply distribution of the organic and mineral fertilizer to inform program interventions and stakeholder actions. 

 

Specific Objectives: 

  • Identify and characterize key sector actors (producers, importers, distributors, institutions, users) and assess their dynamism and level of organization by area; 

  • Locate and map supply sources: production units, warehouses, sales points, importers; 

  • Analyze the spatial and economic availability and accessibility of different types of organic amendments and mineral fertilizers; 

  • Examine policies, regulations, and standards governing the production, importation, distribution, and use of organic and mineral fertilizers; 

  • Identify key constraints to the adoption of integrated fertilization and propose operational recommendations. 

 

Requirements 

The consultant must have:  

  • Advanced degree in Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Supply Chain Management, or a related field; 

  • Experience working on fertilizer-related topics is highly desirable; 

  • At least 10 years’ experience in sustainable agriculture, agroecology, or rural development; 

  • Proven expertise in farm-to-landscape interventions, financial mechanism design, and multi-stakeholder facilitation; 

  • Experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa preferred; 

  • Excellent communication and writing skills.  

 

Deliverables 

The deliverables expected from this consultancy are:  

  1. Methodology, persons/institutions to be contacted, timetable after 5 days 

  1. Final report with actionable recommendations after 30 days 

 

Duration 

This consultancy requires a total 35 days including travel. 

 

Reporting and Work Relationships 

In close collaboration with the Soil Values Program team, the consultant will undertake the following services: 

  • Participate in an Inception meeting with the Extended Program Management Team of Soil Values; 

  • Deliver a Planning to access information relevant to the questions mentioned in Specific Objectives (literature search, resource person interviews inside and outside Soil Values); 

  • Attend the Strategy meeting of Soil Values in West Africa (early October), share progress and deal with comments and suggestions; 

  • Report to Deputy Program Director Technical on a monthly basis. 

 

Mode of payment 

  • 30% - after submission and approval of technical proposal 

  • 70% - after completing and approval of all deliverables  

 

About Program/Project 

Soil Values Program is implemented by a consortium led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) in partnership with Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and SNV, and in collaboration with AGRA, CIFOR-ICRAF, IITA, ISRIC, and IWMI. The program promotes sustainable soil and land management through innovation, farmer-centered approaches, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. More concretely, in terms of impact, after 10 years of implementation, Soil Values will ensure that sustainable management of soil fertility is a pillar of agricultural systems in the Sudano-Sahelian savannah, by improving fertility and productive capacity of 2 million hectares of agricultural land in the Sahel, as well as the resilience and well-being of 1.5 million smallholder farmers, particularly women, in Burkina Faso, Mali , in Niger and Northern Nigeria. 

Soil Values Program seeks to adopt a community-based approach at the watershed level as a cornerstone for scaling up evidence-based best practices in Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM). By engaging local communities, producer groups, and relevant stakeholders in participatory planning and decision-making, the program will ensure that interventions are tailored to the specific biophysical and socio-economic conditions of each watershed. This approach will not only strengthen local ownership and capacity to maintain soil health but will also facilitate the collective management of shared natural resources. In parallel, the program seeks to promote the sustainable financial viability of business models linked to ISFM by fostering market-oriented solutions, strengthening value chains, and brokering access to long-term financing mechanisms. Through this dual focus on participatory watershed governance and economic sustainability, Soil Values aims to achieve lasting improvements in productivity, resilience, and environmental stewardship. 

To ensure lasting transformation, the program emphasizes three strategic intervention areas: 

  1. Bundling: bringing together both technical and socio-economic interventions into combined packages to address farm-level soil fertility  

  1. Integrating interventions at the landscape and watershed levels to optimize water management, to introduce nature-based solutions for the greening of the landscape, and to create broad community participatory and co-designed plans  

  1. Brokering financial instruments that aim at long-term investments in soil fertility management, along with the identification of payment mechanisms for small-scale food producers, including farmers and livestock holders. 

  1. In response to increasing soil degradation and declining agricultural yields, the program promotes integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) as a core strategy. The combined use of organic amendments and mineral fertilizers is recognized as a sustainable pathway to restore soil health and improve agricultural productivity. 

However, the availability, accessibility, and use of these inputs as well as the regulatory frameworks governing them vary significantly across regions. Additionally, the actors involved in these value chains are often weakly organized or insufficiently understood. 

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