Job Description

Heifer International Kenya

Terms of Reference

SUPPLY AND INSTALLATION OF LEAST COST ANIMAL FEED FORMULATION SOFTWARE AND TRAINING OF USERS

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL KENYA

Heifer International Kenya has been operating in Kenya since 1981 with a Mission to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth and its Vision is “a world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet”.

Using a values-based community development approach, Heifer works with communities to strengthen the local economy, diversify diets with better nutrition, and properly manage water and soil systems for future generations.

Heifer implements its projects through

1) Community development and

2) enterprise development approaches.

Each of the projects focuses on three priority directions, namely, strengthening and diversifying resource base, strengthening country program efficiency and increasing outreach and impacts through the utilization of innovative value chain systems.

Currently among Heifer’s portfolio is the Kenya Market-Led Dairy Supply Chain Project (KEMDAP) and the Hatching Hope Kenya Project.

ABOUT KEMDAP

KEMDAP is a 4-year project funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) that was jointly designed by Heifer International, New KCC, Tetra Laval, Food for Development Office (FfDO) and Tetra Pak Kenya (Tetra Pak) and targeted 20,000 in the North Rift (Nandi, Trans-Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet counties) and 10,000 in Upper Eastern Embu, Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties.

The project seeks to tap into the potential of small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya by building stronger and sustainable dairy cooperative societies. To achieve this, KEMDAP focuses on addressing the underlying challenges that hinder small-scale farmers from increasing their dairy production, improving livelihoods and moving beyond subsistence dairy farming.

Various interventions are being undertaken, these include training of cooperatives, the board of directors on leadership, governance and business development; training of farmers on social capital, village-level group savings, gender equality among other relevant skills.

This approach is meant to nurture resilience and sustainability beyond the project life. To build sustainable farmer-owned agribusinesses, the project seeks to support the establishment of functional extension structures.

This entails supporting the 24 dairy cooperatives to recruit Community Facilitators (CFs), Dairy Farm Assistants (DFAs) and Extension Officers (EOs).

Background of animal feed formulation software

KEMDAP has been working with 24 Producer Organizations (POs), whose main activity is bulking ad marketing members’ milk. Another important function that POs offer to members is the provision of services, which include the provision of extensions, AI and access to inputs like animal feeds, veterinary drugs and other equipment on a check-off system.

To ensure farmers get animals feeds of good quality and at a lower price, some POs have invested in their feed mills where they formulate animal feeds which are then sold to farmers. This ensures consistency in quality, affordable prices for farmers and provides extra revenue for the dairy society.

However, most dairy societies do not have software for feed formulation and are therefore not in a position to observe the impact of changing ingredients prices and consistency in quality.

Problem statement and proposed solution

KEMDAP’s goal is to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers by building stronger dairy societies. One of the interventions being undertaken to achieve this is supporting the societies
through business development. Some societies have invested in feed mills and this provides them with extra revenue that enables them to offer members better service.

At the same time, the feed mills ensure the PO is in control of the quality and the price of the feeds that are being sold to farmers. Feed formulation is a highly skilled activity where nutritionist must observe ingredient costs without compromising on the quality, and often least-cost feed formulation software is used. The software ensures the society can accurately determine their costs and this has an overall impact on the profitability of the enterprise.

However, this is not the case with the POs and most rely on manual formulas which do not give an accurate cost of the produced feeds. At the same time, quality varies based on the available ingredients.

Mburugu, Lessos, Ainabkoi and Chepkorio have requested to be assisted to acquire a feed formulation software and KEMDAP wishes to support them acquire one on a cost-share basis. The software must give the least cost of feed per kg without interfering with the quality.

This will ensure the feed mills are profitable and farmers get the best quality feed at the lowest price. With the feed formulation software, the POs could also sell the feeds to other markets.

Purpose of the Software

The least-cost feed formulation software will provide the capability of ‘nutrient factoring’ which allows several nutrients to co-exist resulting in one formula. The software should have basic features applicable to all domestic animals species.

The software will also have the capability to list available ingredients with their unit price. Optional ingredient properties like ingredient types, codes and applicable species will also be required.

For each ingredi

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