Innovation grant for forage making technologies
Guidelines for Applicants
This guidance is designed to help youth-managed forage enterprises who may consider this innovation support for fostering forage supply chains; production, preservation and commercialisation as well as establishment of new market system for maize silage making services by adopting new technologies and expertise in the North-Eastern Tanzania.
1. Background
In July 2018, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) funded by the European Union (EU) under the European Development Fund launched a nineteen (19) months project namely DAIRYPROFIT on “Increasing Dairy Productivity and Incomes for Smallholder farmers, and youth enterprise development in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania”. In Tanzania the DAIRYPROFIT project is being implemented in partnership with Match Maker Associates Limited (MMA), which is a business consultancy firm that empowers emerging business in Africa to grow and create impact. The project targets North-Eastern Tanzania.
The project aims at improving forage supply and management through development of forage production, preservations and supply models including ICT based forage market place with youth owned or managed enterprises. One of the anticipated outcomes of DAIRYPROFIT interventions is improved forage supply and management resulting in increased dairy productivity. This will be achieved through promotion of an incentive based business model for initiating and sustaining youth-led forage enterprises particularly for maize silage.
Within this framework, the partners are launching a call for applications for an Innovation Grant Support which is open to youth-managed forage enterprises who may consider this innovation support for fostering forage supply chains; production, preservation and commercialisation as well as the establishment of new market system for maize silage making services by adopting new technologies and expertise in the North-Eastern Tanzania. The total Innovation Grant Support available is Euro 24,000, and this will be made available to support at least 6 successful enterprises.
The objective of the Innovation Grant Support is to promote uptake of silage feeding system among dairy farmers’ members (demand side) by supporting a pool of youth-managed forage enterprises (supply side) in the project area. This is primarily intended to catalyse and incentivise youth-managed forage enterprises to offer quality forage feeds to smallholder dairy farmers in the North Eastern Tanzania either directly on their farms or through distribution centres.
N.B. The maximum amount per grant award is Euro 4,000.
2. Eligible Applicants
The Innovation Grant Support is open to youth-managed forage enterprises that are contributing (directly or indirectly) to improve forage supply chains; production, preservation and commercialisation in the project area.
The youth-managed forage enterprise (hereafter called ‘The Applicant’) must meet the following criteria:
The Applicant must be a registered youth enterprise working within the DAIRYPROFIT project area in forage;
The Applicant must be a registered entity either with local government or as a company;
The Applicant must demonstrate the ability to be able to contribute at least 10% of the total project budget (cash or in-kind).
3. Use of the Innovation Grant Support and Maximum Grant Award
The maximum innovation grant support amount that will be made available for qualifying youth managed forage enterprise per contract award is Euro 4,000. This will cover a maximum of 90% of the total budget for approved budget (including logistical costs, equipment purchase, etc.). The balance (10%) is the applicant’s own contribution to the project. The Applicant must demonstrate the ability to contribute 10% through cash and in kind contribution of the running costs.
The successful applicants will be expected to clearly brand this support as agreed with CTA and Match Makers Associates. Lessons from this experience will be shared across multiple channels inorder to encourage more youth to provide related services in the dairy sector. The Ownership of any intellectual property or profit generated through this innovation grant support will reside with the youth-managed forage enterprise. All direct beneficiaries of this innovation support will need to keep financial records properly for audit purposes and should be able to provide them to CTA / MMA as appropriate.
For more information download the full Guidelines for Applicants as Word Document. In this document you can also read how to apply and includes the intake form. Fill in the application form and send it to us.