Nursery Establishment and Tree Planting Services – ActionAid Zimbabwe (AAZ)

The Zambezi Valley Alliance (ZVA) for Building Community Resilience Project is being implemented by a consortium of four partners namely; ActionAid Zimbabwe (AAZ) as the lead agency, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA), Afrosoft Holdings Private Limited and African Breeders Services Total Cattle Management Private Limited (ABS TCM). The project is jointly funded by the European Union (EU), Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF). The project is covering a total of 54 wards in the 3 districts [Mbire (17), Binga (25) and Kariba (12)], with the goal of building the resilience of communities in order to protect development gains and achieve improved well -being in the face of shocks and stresses in a sustainable manner”.

The Zambezi Valley Alliance (ZVA) seeks the services of reputable nursery establishment and tree planting companies which provides services such as establishing nursery and tree planting as re-afforestation, training nursery managers and growers and other complementary services that could be offered.

The company will be expected to provide nursery establishment and tree planting to support the local feed formulation enterprise for the goat value chain and enhance agroecology practices based on some of the following broad services requirements: Provide and plant 8000 seedlings by end of March 2021; Manage the seedlings, transportation, monitoring and evaluation; Establish two nurseries at selected sites by March 2021 to accommodate 15,000 trees per nursery. The trees should be a mix to guard against common pests, diseases, multipurpose and fast -growing indigenous tree species such as acacia species (Faidherbia albida); Interfacing with communities, negotiating nursery and grower contracts, training nursery managers and growers; sharing knowledge and facilitating container and seed collection; Prepare a total of 30 000 trees for the 2021/22 planting season, delivering seedlings to growers by 28 February 2022; (covering a total hectarage of approximately 75 ha); Undertaking monthly auditing of sites; Overseeing optimal growth and protection of the trees for 3 years from planting (the length of grower contracts); Ensuring any such issues arising that threaten tree survival are reported soon enough to minimise loss of trees; Awareness raising of environmental management and sustainable use of natural resources to support livelihood; diversification and strengthening using community radios as one of the mass media platforms; Other complementary services.

Applications are welcome from nursery establishment, seedling supplying and tree planting companies who have the following experience and skills; Demonstrated experience (at least 5 years) in implementing the above services; Excellent nursery (establishment, propagation, raising, transplanting, transportation, monitoring and evaluation) skills; Capacity to interface with communities, negotiating nursery and grower contracts, training nursery managers and growers, sharing knowledge; Capacity to commercialize the nursery and seedlings enterprise; Ability to work efficiently and deliver on committed outputs under the assignment within the agreed timeline and budget; Other relevant skills and experience.