1st Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa Scientific Conference, Lilongwe, Malawi.

15 Nov 2018

The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research & Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) convened the 1^st Scientific Conference for the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) in Lilongwe, Malawi for three days from 30 October to 1 November 2018. The theme of this conference was “Enhancing Farmers’ Productivity through Collaborative Agricultural Research in Southern Africa” with the purpose of providing a forum for research and development practitioners to present and discuss outputs from research, as well as trends, innovations, concerns and best practices in agricultural research developed under the APPSA programmes. The conference was attended by government officials from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, participants from other SADC Countries (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar and Zimbabwe), representatives from the CG Centers (CIAT, IRRI & ICRISAT), implementing partners (Harverstplus and partner universities), the World Bank and CCARDESA. The conference included the delivery of 5 key note presentations, 27 scientific papers and 5 poster presentations under the following thematic areas:

Crop Improvement
Agronomy (Conservation Agriculture; Soil and Water Management; Integrated Pest and Disease Management)
Postharvest and Value Addition
Technology Dissemination and Seed Systems

Key outcomes of the conference:

It is clear that there is a need to do more research on climate smart agriculture (CSA), as well as pest and disease control;
Implementing countries are sharing similar ecological conditions, experiencing similar challenges and therefore, the research results from one project may be relevant across the region;
There is need to translate research into results - i.e. take research outputs to farmers in order to improve production;
Efforts should be made to improve private sector involvement in research and dissemination of technologies to improve farmer adoption levels;
There is a need to increase budget allocation to agricultural research;
Efforts should be made to increase media engagement and communication. This will help the project package the information in a manner that will appeal to the end users;
Youth integration and engaging with emerging farmers needs to be increased to ensure that research is relevant to such groups;
CCARDESA has launched its new website: www.ccardesa.org.