10032182-Building the capacities of smallholder farmers on agriculture best practices, and climate smart agriculture in Upper Egypt

The Agricultural Innovation Project Phase II (AIP II) is an Egyptian-German Technical Cooperation project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR). The project runs until the end of 2029 and aims to increase the income and resilience of smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs in Upper Egypt through market-oriented agricultural innovations and climate-resilient production practices. Under co-financing by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC/DEZA) and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), AIP II contributes to the LAND-at-Scale (LAS) programme, particularly through activities related to Participatory Land-Use Consolidation (LUC), climate resilience and inclusive business models. The intervention focuses on strengthening agricultural productivity, climate resilience, market integration and the provision of improved services to smallholder farmers. The assignment covers the governorates of Beni Suef, Minya, Asyut and Sohag and targets selected value chains, including medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) such as basil, chamomile, mint, marjoram, fennel, anise and geranium, as well as onions, garlic, tomatoes, sesame, soybeans and green beans. The assignment forms part of AIP II Output 1, which focuses on enhancing the climate resilience and productivity of smallholder farmers. It aims to strengthen the capacities of approximately 9,000 smallholder farmers and 200 rural stakeholders, including agricultural extension services, cooperatives, agriculture-related enterprises, community leaders and young professionals. A key feature of the intervention is the application of a Living Lab approach. The Living Lab provides a multi-stakeholder framework for co-creating, testing, validating and scaling agricultural innovations under real-life conditions. It brings together farmers, multipliers, community leaders, research institutions and public and private sector actors. The approach is complemented by Farmer Field School (FFS) methods, which provide a practical and farmer-centred learning and experimentation tool within the broader Living Lab framework. The conceptualisation and transition phases of the Living Lab approach are implemented by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). The present assignment covers the subsequent scaling-up phase. The selected service provider will implement the validated solutions through Interactive Demo Plots, field visits, training and knowledge exchange, while supporting inclusive business models and Land-Use Consolidation. The overall intervention is designed to strengthen the adoption and scaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), post-harvest practices and market-oriented solutions, thereby contributing to more productive, sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural systems in Upper Egypt.