Food Security

Award Type is acquisition; USAID is considering issuing this as a TO under an expanded USAID/Armenia Disaster/FS single holder IDIQ. Goal: Increase domestic production of critical agricultural value chains to increase food security and reduce dependence on imports. Result Area 1: Increased efficiency and production of critical crops for domestic consumption - Establish baseline to determine where opportunities for increased production of staple crops exist. - Re-introduce extension services to provide knowledge support to farmers for more efficient production. - Increase collaboration among farmers to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale. - Support mechanisation, improved seeds, storage, and other measures to improve yields and reduce post-harvest losses Result Area 2: Agriculture sector knowledge management - In partnership with National Agrarian University, strengthen digital agriculture capacity through development of a publicly accessible, web-based agriculture information dashboard, and productive use mapping tool. - Data collection and maintenance, dissemination, and access for risk identification, planning, and decision making for farmers, private sector actors, and government as part of agricultural information tool above. - Increase public and farmer awareness of economic opportunities related to agricultural production - Content development for web-based access/social media for enhanced farmer information and training purposes. - Bring to scale existing ANAU s youth engagement programs and expand offerings at secondary school, vocational education, and higher education levels. Result Area 3: Disaster Preparedness and Resilience - Expand early warning capacity to include risk assessment related to medium to longer term threats that have an impact on food security. - Establish coordination and risk assessment mechanism inclusive of the university, government, and private sector to consider and discuss threats and mitigations to food systems and security. - Increase availability of public information regarding risks and threats to the food systems and improving collection of related data. - Expand University s capacity to improve available data for surveillance of pests and biothreats to contribute to national early warning and management. Result Area 4: Rapid Response/Windows of Opportunity - Support shorter term recovery from unanticipated events or disasters that threaten the food system in the transition between emergency response and development activities. - Support grant for specific, innovative activities requested by women or youth entrepreneurs for testing purposes or bringing to scale agribusiness and digital agriculture opportunities. - Provide studies, research, or analysis requested by government or farmers to help understand threat or risk and possible responses. - Provide specialized technical assistance on a limited basis to address a specific risk, threat, or opportunity.