Grants / Agency for International Development / Zimbabwe USAID-Harare

RFI-613-22-000003: Support for Commercializing Non-timber Forest Products in Zimbabwe

Closed Closed February 28, 2022 Opportunity RFI-613-22-000003 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of Zimbabwe USAID-Harare notices from 2022.

• Award ceiling$13.0 million
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeOther

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to any type of organization.

• Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses, individuals.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past USAID Foreign Assistance for Programs Overseas awards averaged $8.7 million; this notice allows up to $13.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (54% over five years) went to nonprofits.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

The resilience of Zimbabwe’s people depends on the productivity of its natural resources, principally land, water, and fauna. Yet Zimbabwe’s agricultural land, forests, and biodiversity are in steep decline due to climate events, increased poverty, population growth, poor land use planning, and weak governance. The decline in agricultural production, especially in Natural Regions IV and V (where annual rainfall is less than 650 mm[1], with frequent seasonal droughts, erratic rainfall and severe dry spells) has resulted in increased food insecurity, as well as reduced household nutrition and income. Consequently, there is often crop failure and/or livestock losses that necessitate vulnerable households seeking alternative income sources to procure food and purchase agricultural inputs such as seeds, calves, and fertilizers for the next farming season. Of the nearly 6,000 species of indigenous plants found in the country, some 900 of them have traditional use as food, cosmetics or medicine within these two Natural Regions and are supplementary sources of income for 60 - 70 percent of rural households who live there[2]. With the growing awareness of the nutritional and health benefits that NTFPs offer, there has been an increased demand to commercialize. For example, baobab fruit has been granted a novel foods clearance by the EU and can be exported from Zimbabwe. There are also several companies in Zimbabwe and in the region that buy and process NTFPs and are ready to offer markets to rural producers[3]. Return on investment (mainly labor for collection and processing) is much higher than from any of the major cash crops. For example, in Mutoko and Mudzi districts, it is USD 62.80 for Mobola seed and USD 14.08 for Sour Plum compared to USD 1.68 for groundnuts, which is the major cash earner in the two districts. Therefore, the Activity will seek ways to sustainably commercialize non-timber forest products in order to increase alternative income sources, improve natural resource management practices that will promote biodiversity, and reduce human-wildlife conflict. Target districts will be those districts where the NTFPs of most commercial value are of harvestable commercial quantities.

Category: Natural Resources.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Agencies often post the same opportunity again under a new number, so check the program's notices on Grants.gov and the similar open grants below.

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