PRISMA - Farmer Segmentation Lead Consultant
Project Overview and Role:
The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Incomes through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA) is a five-year program (2019 – 2023) funded by the Australian Government’s aid program and implemented in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia. The program will build upon the achievements and results of Phase 1 (2013-2018), using a market systems development (MSD) approach to support inclusive economic growth in Indonesia’s agriculture sector.
PRISMA will improve smallholder farmers’ competitiveness, access to new markets, and better inputs, know-how, and technology. It will aim to achieve a sustainable 30% increase in the net incomes of a further 700,000 smallholder farming households in the six target Indonesia by 2023 (a total of 1 million farming households).
Vegetable Portfolio Background:
Vegetable production in Papua and West Papua (PWP) fulfils less than half the local demand (181,000 tons). This is because local farmers have low productivity due to low-quality inputs, poor agriculture practices, and lack of access to market information, particularly for indigenous women. PRISMA will help address these constraints by using an ethnographic cluster approach to support seed companies in promoting high-quality seeds, introducing GAP (Good Agriculture Practice) to farmers, and improving the relationship between farmers, off-takers, and end-consumers.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
Market systems development works on changing the behaviour of market actors, especially farmers, through introducing new products and services. Therefore, understanding farmers’ characteristics, behaviour, needs, preferences, worldview, and decision-making is required to build a successful intervention. Subsequently, sociocultural contexts, behavioural incentives and barriers behind their decisions can be mapped, and it can provide insights into the implementation strategy. These insights should be obtained from prior studies about farming characteristics and interventions’ market assessment stage.
Hence, Papua is a rich, diverse and culturally dynamic region on the easternmost border of Indonesia, making it difficult to address every constraint at once. This difficulty also occurs to get into marginalised farmers’ mindset. It requires robust qualitative research in the form of ethnography by doing in-depth interviews, extensive observation, and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to understand the sociocultural and economic dynamics and context surrounding them. Therefore, PRISMA will conduct a study called “Farmers Segmentation”, which will help us to develop farmers profiling for each segment including their household demographic; behavior, beliefs, and values; income potential, and degree of farmer professionalization.
This profile will be useful information to develop specific guidance in Good Agricultural Practice/GAP, Farmers Business Analysis/FBA, and communication methods, which aim to improve the engagement with indigenous farmers in Tanah Papua. Accordingly, the purpose of this assignment is to hire a lead consultant that will:
- Leading the team to develop farmer profiling for each segment (Household Demographic; Farmer Behavior, Beliefs, and Values; Income Potential; Degree of Farmer Professionalization)
- Leading the team in providing insight and recommendation in developing specific guidance in Good Agricultural Practice/GAP, Farming Business Analysis/FBA, and Communication methods, which aimed to improve the engagement with indigenous farmers in Tanah Papua
- Being in charge of the written report and presentation of the “Farmers Segmentation Study”
- Share professional insights and experience with PRISMA’s Vegetable Team on immersing and collaboratively working with marginalized groups, especially in Tanah Papua.
The consultant is expected to deliver tasks including but not limited to the following:
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Conduct desk research to gain a deep understanding of prior studies/research in Tanah Papua, including a review of the following documents:
- West Papua Farming Analysis
- Papua-West Papua Off-taking Study
- Other supporting documents from Vegetable Sector
- Give feedback to study design and questions list developed by PRISMA consultants.
- Collect qualitative raw data by conducting field visits and collecting relevant information to understand farmers’ behaviour deeply.
- Collect qualitative raw data from consultant, and public sector and government consultant for the Farmers Segmentation Study
- Conduct quality control on data collection by coordinating with consultant and public sector and government consultant for Farmers Segmentation Study.
- Conduct data processing and analysis of qualitative raw data collected during this study.
- Develop farmer profiling for each segment (Household Demographic; Farmer Behavior, Beliefs, and Values; Income Potential; Degree of Farmer Professionalization)
- Provide insight and recommendation in developing specific guidance in Good Agricultural Practice/GAP, Farming Business Analysis/FBA, and Communication methods, which aimed to improve the engagement with indigenous farmers in Tanah Papua
- Working closely with public sector and government consultants in providing recommendations for better targeting farmers as beneficiaries for government and local community programs in the vegetable sector.
- Lead communication and coordination between the consultant team and the PRISMA team.
- Present the findings to the PRISMA team in written reports and a workshop.
The consultant may propose additional tasks or modify the abovementioned functions based on mutual agreement.
Required Qualifications:
- Possessing a graduate degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Social Welfare, Social Sciences or Humanities from a reputable university;
- Relevant professional years of experience in qualitative research, particularly on market research in rural areas, economic behaviour and socio-cultural mapping.
- An excellent understanding of psychographic and behavioural segmentation;
- Demonstrates professional experience in converting research results into concise and actionable recommendations;
- Having a high level of analytical and critical thinking skills and the capacity to innovate and to build the capacity of others
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in both English and Bahasa Indonesia;
Desirable criteria:
- Postgraduate qualification in social sciences or humanities, particularly in Anthropology / Sociology, from a reputable university is an advantage.
- Working experience in a reputable market research firm and exposure to agri-business or rural markets.
- Working experience in qualitative and consumer behaviour research in Papua is an advantage
- Demonstrate the capability to use qualitative processing software (nVivo and ATLAS).
- Experience in conducting ethnographic study/research.
- Excellence understanding of socio-cultural context of Tanah Papua
- Understanding local accent of Tanah Papua
Company Overview:
About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world's most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people's lives.
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This application closed on 25 May 2023.
Female, male, and people with disabilities are encourage to apply.
