TERMS OF REFERENCE

CSISA-MI Marketing Consultant Implementation

January, 2015

Marketing Consultant Implementation

for CSISA-MI Project
Terms of Reference for Marketing Consultant Implementation

1. Project Background
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia Mechanization and Irrigation project (CSISA-MI) is
a partnership between CIMMYT and iDE, funded by the USAID Mission in Bangladesh under
President Obamas Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative. CSISA-MI seeks to transform agriculture in
southern Bangladesh by unlocking the potential productivity of the regions farmers during the dry
season through surface water irrigation, efficient agricultural machinery and local service provision.
CSISA-MI is an initiative of the wider CSISA program in Bangladesh (CSISA-BD). CSISAs goal is
to Increase food and income security at scale through sustainable intensification of cereal-based
agricultural systems. CSISA-MI builds on lessons learnt and opportunities identified by CSISA-BD.
While CSISA focuses on adaptive technology testing, deploying new crop varieties, training
farmers, and facilitating output markets, CSISA-MI goes beyond this to focus on upstream market
interventions to ensure that technologies needed for agricultural intensification are sustainably
available through local markets.
In the FtF Zone, agricultural productivity is constrained by the following key factors: limited irrigation,
growing energy and fuel costs, increasing labor scarcity and cost, low crop intensity, and lack of
sustained commercial access to productivity enhancing technologies. CSISA-MI has targeted four
agricultural machines, the commercialization of which can ease these constraints and increase
productivity and income for farmers. The four machines and key benefits are provided below:
Machine

Key Benefits
Axial
Flow
Pump
(AFP)

Up to 40% fuel efficient in surface water delivery, depending on lifting

height
No priming needed; reduces operational hazard
Easy transportation
Saves fuel costs, labor, and time; increases profits

Seeder
Fertilizer
Drill
(SFD)

Precision seeding and fertilizing in wheat, pulses, also with horticultural

applications.
Can serve four roles: plowing, seeding, fertilizing, and leveling
Strip tillage; good impact on soil
Saves time, labor, and money; reduces cost; and increases yield
Machine operated sowing and fertilizing on raised beds, alternating
with furrows
Saves irrigation water up to 35%.
Machine can be used for plowing, seeding and leveling
Saves time, labor, and money; reduces cost; and increases yield
Rapid harvesting of rice and wheat
Reduces cost associate with manual labor
Saves crops when early harvest avoids natural disasters

Raised
Bed
Planter
(BP)
MultiCrop
Reaper

iDE Bangladesh: Khurshid Garden, House # 21 (Apt. 202, 302, 601), Road # 123, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212
Tel: +880 (0) 2-988-6515, Fax: +088 (0) 2-988-6548, info@ide-bangladesh.org, http://www.ide-bangladesh.org

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TERMS OF REFERENCE
CSISA-MI Marketing Consultant Implementation
January, 2015

By the completion of CSISA-MI project, the following impacts will be achieved in three Strategic
Objective (SO) areas:

SO 1: To sustainably intensify and diversify agricultural production in Southern

Bangladesh through surface water irrigation to increase household income;
SO 2: To sustainably transform agriculture in Southern Bangladesh through broad-based
access to agricultural mechanization services; and
SO 3: To develop new models for public and private institutions to support irrigation and
agricultural mechanization in Southern Bangladesh.

CSISA-MI seeks to scale-up agricultural machineries through a market-development approach.

The ultimate goal of the initiative is to develop the market system for precision and labor-saving
agricultural and fuel efficient irrigation equipment in a way which enables low-income farmers to
access and benefit with a hypothesis that access will be achieved through local service provision.
The local service providers (LSPs) who purchase target machineries and offer services to their
community as a business will not only benefit as entrepreneurs, their affordable services will
increase the productivity and profits of poor smallholder farmers. This will have far reaching and
broader impacts upon poverty reduction and income generation which are the goals of the Feed
the Future (FtF) Initiative.
The initiative aims to play a catalytic role in the market through a strong demonstration effect in
order to trigger wider changes in both the demand for intensification and irrigation services and the
supply of the technologies delivering those services. Accordingly, the CSISA-MI scaling plan
centers around creating a robust market infrastructure that will catalyze scaling of innovative local
services provision through machineries. In addition, a key goal of the initiatives work is to create
learning among actors and stakeholders that will continue post-initiative. This differs from typical
capacity building activities in traditional projects in that the learning focuses on developing value
chain based networks.

2. About the Assignment

Research and interventions implemented through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia
(CSISA) has shown that agricultural machinery dealers in Southern Bangladesh are generally more
responsive to demand from the field than they are to supply-side opportunities. Promotion and
marketing systems are also rather weak, especially among local dealers serving rural communities.
Building on CSISAs experiences, CSISA-MI is seeking to assist companies and dealers of surface
water irrigation and agricultural machinery equipment to widely market these technologies through
a targeted promotional strategy to generate interest 1) amongst local service providers (LSPs) who
will purchase the equipment and 2) amongst farmers who will purchase the services of the LSPs.
The purpose of this consultancy is to improve agricultural machinery private companies (PCs)
ability to develop awareness of their products amongst rural customers. To date the PCs have
deployed their own promotional and marketing campaigns through various channels including
radio advertising, billboard, shop branding and points of sale, and rural push-sales forces to drive
sales. These have met with some success, leading to the adoption and profitable utilization of
machineries by LSPs in the target zones. It is therefore anticipated that with additional marketing
efforts, 1) a greater number of potential customers can be encouraged to purchase the products
iDE Bangladesh: Khurshid Garden, House # 21 (Apt. 202, 302, 601), Road # 123, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212
Tel: +880 (0) 2-988-6515, Fax: +088 (0) 2-988-6548, info@ide-bangladesh.org, http://www.ide-bangladesh.org

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TERMS OF REFERENCE
CSISA-MI Marketing Consultant Implementation
January, 2015
and 2) a greater number of farmers can be motivated to seek out agricultural machinery services.
The marketing Agency will augment the efforts of the PCs, and deploy its expertise to identify the
best marketing channels and avenues for increasing demand for 1) the target machineries and 2)
the services those machineries provide.
The Agencys work will geographically coincide with the work of the projects four hubs: Barisal,
Faridpur, Jessore, and Khulna. This work will focus on three of the four project machines: axial flow
pump (AFP), reaper, and seeder-fertilizer drill (bed planter is not considered at this stage, but wil
be in the future). Focus districts for each machine are:

AFP: Barisal, Bhola, Shatkira, and Jessore;

Reaper: Bhola, Jessore, Rajbari, Faridpur Chuadanga, Jessore, Jhenaidah, Narail, Magura,
Khulna, Baherhat, Kushtia, and Madaripur
SFD: Narail, Magura, Kushtia, Meherpur, Faridpur, Jenaidah

The agencys work should complement efforts to achieve the following sales targets: 200 or more
AFPs, 100 or more reapers, and 50 or more SFDs.
Two agencies will be selected for this assignment: one for reaper and the other for a combination
of AFP and SFD. This division is for two reasons: 1) the AFP and SFD are both the products of one
company, RFL, and the agencys work should closely complement RFLs while the reaper is
supplied by two companies, ACI and Metal, and the agencys work for reaper should not be branded
and 2) by working with two different agencies, the project will learn from different approaches and
improve marketing strategies for future years in the project.

3. Objectives of the Consultancy

The objectives of the consultancy assignment are to:
1. Supplement the PCs marketing efforts through the provision of a tactical marketing campaign
to support increased uptake of selected agri-machineries in the target areas;
2. Shape the tactical campaign so that it not only motivates customers for the machines, but also
farmer who would hire the services of LSPs; and,
3. Review and report progress on the experience, learning, and recommendations for future
activities.

4. Major Responsibilities of the Consultancy Agency

The composition of the team is at the discretion of the Agency, however it is expected that the
Agency will deliver the on the requirements of this Terms of Reference (ToR) within the stipulated
timeframe and budget. The Agency will be responsible for the following:

Developing marketing plans in conjunction with CSISA-MI and the PCs. These marketing plans
will include sales targets, proposed districts, modality for the campaign, key sales and
distribution channels, budget, and other stakeholders required (such as finance partners).
Deploying marketing activities to provide PCs with supplementary marketing support as per the
agreed plans;
Reviewing and reporting progress of marketing activity deployment; and,
Providing recommendations for optimizing the marketing strategies of PCs.

iDE Bangladesh: Khurshid Garden, House # 21 (Apt. 202, 302, 601), Road # 123, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212
Tel: +880 (0) 2-988-6515, Fax: +088 (0) 2-988-6548, info@ide-bangladesh.org, http://www.ide-bangladesh.org

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TERMS OF REFERENCE
CSISA-MI Marketing Consultant Implementation
January, 2015

5. Major responsibilities of iDE

iDE will provide the Agency with necessary support to undertake and implement the assignment
and execute the objectives of this ToR. Such responsibilities include the following:

Provide relevant documents and technical support to the Agency;

Facilitate introductions and access to partner companies and other key stakeholders relevant
to the completion of the assignment objectives;
Monitor regularly, and provide feedback and ensure effectiveness of study; and,
Disburse payment as per the agreed schedule.

6. Expected Deliverables
The following deliverables are expected from the Agency under this ToR:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Brief assessment of marketing needs;

Tactical marketing campaign Deployment Plan to guide implementation in the project areas;
Deployment of marketing activities in-line with the agreed plan;
Monitoring Report(s) in-line with the agreed plan (including images as specified in the reporting
plan).
5) Recommendations for optimizing future marketing strategies of PCs (short report and
presentation)

7. Eligibility Criteria
General experience and expertise requirement for the Agency applying:

Understanding of how rural marketing works in developing countries, particularly in Bangladesh;

Experience with market systems development, especially agriculture, agricultural machinery,
and/or technology adoption;
The ability to write the final report in fluent English and the ability to present this verbally.

8. Work Schedule
The work is expected to be conducted February to April, 2015. This means completion of the
tactical marketing campaign by March 2015 and all tasks in the assignment, including submission
of the final report, by April 2015. In case of unforeseen circumstances outside the responsibility of
either party which cause delays, a revised deadline will be mutually agreed by both parties. It is
understood that unless major changes in the scope and timeline of the study are required in this
case, the Agency is expected to complete the work within the agreed budget.
Month
February
Week 1 2 3 4

March
April
May
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Activities
(1) Develop marketing plans in conjunction
with CSISA-MI and the PCs

iDE Bangladesh: Khurshid Garden, House # 21 (Apt. 202, 302, 601), Road # 123, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212
Tel: +880 (0) 2-988-6515, Fax: +088 (0) 2-988-6548, info@ide-bangladesh.org, http://www.ide-bangladesh.org

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TERMS OF REFERENCE
CSISA-MI Marketing Consultant Implementation
January, 2015
(2) Deploy marketing activities to provide
PCs with supplementary marketing support
(3) Review and report progress of marketing
activity
(4) Provide recommendations for optimizing
the marketing strategies of PCs

9. Bid Submission
All expressions of interest should include (to be received before 28th of January 2015, 5PM):

Cover letter (maximum one page);

Technical Proposal (maximum three pages) which should include:
o Understanding of the assignment
o Assessment methodology, including tools to be used
o Marketing campaign description
o Activity timeline
o Mechanism for reporting progress and assessing success
o Outline of content for recommendations report
o Relevant experience of the consultant/ firm;
o Profiles / resumes of the personnel to be involved in the assignment must be included in
the annex.
Financial Proposal (maximum one-page): breakdown of cost estimates for services rendered.
This should include, but not be limited to: daily consultancy fees, accommodation and living
costs; transport cost, stationeries, and supplies needed for data collection and reporting.

Interested and qualified consultants / consultancy firms should submit their proposals to iDE
Bangladesh through two methods. First a hard copy should be mailed to:
Kevin Robbins
Deputy Project Manager, CSISA-MI
iDE Bangladesh
Apt 601, House 21, Road 123, Gulshan 1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Second, a soft copy should be emailed to info@ide-bangladesh.org and the iDE CSISA-MI Deputy
Project Manager, Kevin Robbins, at kevin.robbins@ide-bangladesh.org. The subject line for this
soft copy email should be CSISA-MI A2F Product Development Proposal.

iDE Bangladesh: Khurshid Garden, House # 21 (Apt. 202, 302, 601), Road # 123, Gulshan-1, Dhaka-1212
Tel: +880 (0) 2-988-6515, Fax: +088 (0) 2-988-6548, info@ide-bangladesh.org, http://www.ide-bangladesh.org

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