Provision of a quotation for the supply of satellite-based technology services for the identification and monitoring of production and supply risk in Colombian cacao farming
The Satellite Applications Catapult and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) are collaborating on the creation of the COLombian COcoa (COLCO) control system, which aims to help increase the yield and consistency in quality of cacao produced in Colombia.
The Catapult is opening this opportunity to interested UK parties, who wish to support the demonstration of how satellite-based services can be coupled with web/mobile applications for data collection and delivery to provide improved cacao farm management. We are looking for UK-registered collaborators to work on the COLCO project between July 2020 and May 2021, with the possibility of project extension subject to the agreement and further funding from Innovate UK. The successful supplier will work with the consortium of UK and Colombia-based participants to design, develop and deliver an operational demonstrator, which would be expected to be at TRL 6-7 (see Figure 1) by the end of the activities funded in this subcontract and which would work within and enhance the COLCO system offering. As part of the project, COLCO activities will be showcased through articles, workshops & conference/meeting presentations.
Figure 1. – NASA Technology Readiness Levels
We are looking to sub-contract a UK-registered business to deliver weather /climate information and associated products/services to farmers and extension workers/field technicians in order to support on-farm decision making and mitigation against extreme weather events. Where possible, this weather/climate information should be translated into regional and, if possible, country-wide cacao production risk indicators, which in turn informs cacao aggregators/purchasers on the risk to their cacao supply. The visualisation & delivery of all the above information should be made through a mobile phone/web application, that also allows the parallel visualisation of any other relevant datasets, where these exist, particularly at farm level (e.g. farm location, field boundaries, species of cacao planted). This application should also allow end users to add data (e.g. field boundaries).
Primary requirements:
- To work with Colombian consortium members to identify regional cacao production risk indicators (e.g. extreme weather events, pest & disease risk / occurrence) & translate these into cacao supply risk indicators providing this information to the relevant end users at regular intervals.
- To provide localised & accurate weather forecasts (either developed through an internal capability or from a third-party provider) and associated production intelligence that can be used to provide decision-making support for farmers and extension workers. The three main variables that need to be represented in weather forecasts are temperature, humidity & rainfall.
- Provision of a web/mobile phone application for presentation of all the above information and other relevant datasets in Spanish. This application should also allow the manual input of data by end users. This could be an existing application, which would need to be rebranded as a COLCO application but its creation attributed to the relevant entities (e.g. “COLCO application powered by org. X”), or an application built specifically for COLCO.
Application:
To apply for this opportunity please visit MyTenders portal (you must be registered as a supplier) OR download the RFQ and send to procurement@sa.catapult.org.uk by 12:00 on Friday 31 July.
More Information:
If you have any questions or need anymore information, please contact procurement@sa.catapult.org.uk
