Improving Wheat Seeds Production in Rural Aleppo Province The proposed project seeks to make a contribution towards addressing critical food insecurity through support to selected farmers/households in three villages of rural Aleppo province (Jebel Saman), to develop essential household livelihood assets through improved agricultural activities. NPA and its partner Masrrat have identified the need to support agricultural productivity in the target locations that are not reachable by other organizations, through strengthening their wheat production. 

The project will encompass one area of humanitarian intervention, which is supporting agriculture production through support to wheat farmers with inputs (in kind and voucher) and agricultural services and extension support.

This project aims to target farmers directly and indirectly their families men, women, boys and girls affected by the Syrian crisis, to reduce the impact of the conflict and economic crisis through enabling their safe access to humanitarian assistance. 300 wheat farmers will be enrolled in the program to receive agricultural inputs and agriculture extension trainings, enabling them to resume and/or improve their livelihood activities. The project has been designed based on needs assessments conducted in the target locations, which included Focused Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews with different vulnerable groups and individuals by NPA’s partner, Masrrat. Due to land accessibility as primary criteria, this project will not target IDP families, but where possible will IDPs. 

Beneficiary identification criteria will also ensure that vulnerable groups affected by cross cutting issues are targeted. The project will primarily target female-headed households and families who have pregnant women and lactating mothers, in addition to the disabled and chronically ill (amongst others). NPA and Masrrat’s experience of food security and livelihood support in Syria, in combination with NPA’s partnership framework - will enable this project to meet these urgent needs. NPA has a well-established office in Gaziantep and is registered by the Turkish Government as an international NGO with permission to implement humanitarian activities inside Turkey and also cross border activities into Syria. The NPA team will support Masrrat’s capacity to ensure adequate programing in line with international standards and humanitarian principles. Throughout the project period different subjects ranging from monitoring, specific technical agricultural advice, to logistic, administrative and financial management support, will be provided. Additionally support from regional personnel for Finance Management (FM) and Logistics Management (LM) will be given. 

The timeline for this proposed project is 12 months, including program evaluation, partner’s financial review, and audit processes before the closed date, led by NPA as the responsible party for the over-all grant management of the project. The main project implementation period of 10 months will be aligned with the wheat-planting season to production period, including land cultivation, irrigation and fertilizer applications (October 2016 to July 2017). Masrrat as NPA’s partner will be engaged for a total of 11 months during the project period, including 2 weeks of preparation for implementation plan, baseline, and endline – supported and mentored by NPA staffs.