CCARDESA Presents Papers at the AFAAS Extension, 2017

For the second time, the SADC region hosted the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) Agricultural Extension Week which was held from 30 October to 3 November 2017 in Durban, South Africa. The event attracted nearly 700 participants mainly extension specialists from across African to deliberate on many issue with special focus on climate change and climate smart agriculture. Covered topics included integration of youth in climate smart agriculture, scaling up information communication technology innovations, and knowledge management among others. During the event the South Africa Forum for Extension and Advisory Services was officially launched by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for South Africa, Hon. Senzeni Zokwana.

CCARDESA with support from Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) presented two papers, focusing on building capacity of agricultural extension services in southern Africa for scaling up CSA and; strengthening systems on knowledge management and sharing for CSA in the region. In addition CCARDESA hosted a booth which shared CSA information to support agriculture and Climate Smart Agriculture. The booth attracted about 150 registered participants who sought to understand what CCARDESA is doing with regard to CSA in the region. Publications disseminated included the Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP), the SADC climate change strategy, several brochures and pamphlets which were developed by CCARDESA and its partners including GIZ, project flyers and posters.

The CCARDESA Information Communication and Knowledge system was showcased together with the Agricultural Marketing and Early Warning Information system (AMEWI) an information sharing platform which was developed through a CCARDESA supported project. The CCARDESA team supported the event by ensuring social media coverage