APPSA-Lesotho Holds Scientific Seminar

Scientists from the Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), National University of Lesotho (NUL) and Lesotho Agricultural College (LAC) recently participated on a three-day Scientific Seminar organized by Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) -Lesotho in the Leribe district. APPSA is a six-year research-based initiative funded by the World Bank. It seeks to promote a regional approach to agricultural research, technology generation and dissemination by supporting the strengthening and scaling up of Regional Centers of Leadership (RCoL) on commodities of national and regional importance. Lesotho is establishing an RCoL in Horticulture. The DAR is the lead implementing agency while the two (2) academic institutions of higher learning (NUL & LAC) are local implementing partners under APPSA-Lesotho.

The purpose of the scientific seminar was to present and discuss implementation progress of Research and Development (R&D) sub-projects and thus develop plans for the next implementation phase. Planning touched on land allocation and preparation for the next cropping season and triggered discussions around the implementation challenges of R&D sub-projects. Further focus narrowed on fiduciary - Financial and Procurement processes, Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Information Communication and Knowledge Management (ICKM) platforms utilized by APPSA-Lesotho.

During the scientific seminar, ICKM showcased APPSA-Lesotho’s Compendium of Stories, which was highly appreciated by the participants. ICKM within APPSA-Lesotho focuses on promoting the project visibility and raising awareness, collaboration, and dissemination of improved agricultural technologies both nationally and regionally.

APPSA- Lesotho Project Manager, Mr Mabusetsa Makau, welcomed the scientists to the seminar. The manager expressed his gratitude to the three APPSA-Lesotho implementing partners for making this important seminar possible. He indicated that, for the longest time since the commencement APPSA Phase 2, it has not been possible to meet physically due to COVID-19 restrictions hence the scientific seminar is long overdue.

The presentations were made for the first five on-going APPSA (R&D) sub-projects to ascertain progress and impact. Field days, establishment of farmer filed schools and identification of lead farmers working closely with scientists and extension officers are some of the milestones achieved. Apparently, there were some challenges during implementation of the above R&D sub-projects that included COVID-19 restricted movements and severe rains.

During APPSA-Lesotho scientific seminar the plans for the implementation of ten (10) newly approved R&D sub-projects were presented, discussed and recommendations made accordingly. It was noted that preliminary surveys were already taking place regarding some of these R&D sub-projects. Requisitions of related resources have been made to ease implementation. The ICKM team are pivotal in customization of the digital survey data collection making use of mobile phones. The research sub-stations from which demonstrations and trials would be made were clearly indicated. The expectation is that DAR farm management would allocate land for the scientific research accordingly.

Source: Department of Agricultural Research (DAR) of Lesotho