CCARDESA was among the partners who provided opening remarks during the Regional Policy Dialogue on ‘Tranforming Agriculture in Afica’ in Maputo Mozambique. This event attracted over 200 participants from across the continent. Dr Catherine Mugomba the Board Chairperson of CCARDESA highlighted the mandate of CCARDESA and its role in increasing agriculture productivity by fostering collaboration among agricultural research development stakeholders across the SADC region. She urged the participants to take advantage of the CCARDESA’s approach which harnesses existing strengths of different actors for the benefit of people in the region. She shared with participants milestones accomplished in research and development including the CCARDESA website which will be launched later this week at the Regional Policy Dialogue.
Speaking at the same function, FANRPAN Board Chairperson Mr Sindiso Ngwenya urged participants to move away from repeating the same old failed agricultural approaches. He indicated that it’s high time that people abandoned failed strategies and embrace new ones that will change the landscape of the way agriculture is done. He encouraged all the people to make agriculture attractive and progressive.
Her Excellency, Graca Machel who also provided remarks, urged participants to consider the needs of women and children. She indicated that there is an urgent need to humanize the knowledge that is being generated from agriculture research and development to directly focus on addressing peoples needs. She stressed the importance and the need for knowledge generation to inform strategies which will combat malnutrition in children. She bemoaned the current situation where many children in Africa are stunted and will not grow to their full potential because of lack of food. She also gave a passionate call to involve women in research, as it is they who are often charged with domestic duties but are often sidelined in decision making. H.E. Graca also reminded all participants to ensure that the information which they produce should reach the target audiences. If the information does not reach end-users, then all the work done is in vain. She concluded by giving her view of a transformed agriculture systems in which every African country would have enough food to feed its citizens.
The Regional Policy Dialogue of Maputo is envisaged to initiate a paradigm shift in the way agriculture is undertaken in across the continent.
