Egyptian women farmers.

What is an Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC)?


An Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) is an umbrella contract that allows USAID missions to use the services of prequalified contractors through a limited competitive bidding process or by sole-sourcing, thereby expediting the award-making process. The awards, called task orders, can be for any value. The total value of task orders awarded is limited by a predetermined ceiling, which is $500 million in the case of the Support for Food Security Activities (SFSA) IQC.


The SFSA IQC can be used to provide short- or long-term services to USAID missions in areas consistent with the program’s overarching goal: to generate rapid, sustained and broad-based economic growth in agriculture.


Services include:


  • Technical assistance in agricultural production and post-harvest activities
  • Adaptation to or mitigation of climate change
  • Market and trade facilitation
  • Value chain development
  • Regulatory and policy reform
  • Humanitarian response
  • Information and knowledge management
  • Organizational development

Target countries include those of the Common Market for eastern and southern Africa (COMESA) as well as Tanzania. » See map.


Task orders can be issued through August 2015.