The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) through its CAADP-XP4 Programme with support from the European Union convened a meeting of SADC Directors of Agricultural Research and agricultural extension and Deans of Faculties of Agriculture to review progress on capacity building of the National Agricultural Research Systems towards addressing emerging regional priorities, including facilitating exchanges of experiences. The meeting was held at Birchwood in Johannesburg from 6-8 February 2023 under the theme “Upscaling the generation of technologies for improved agricultural productivity, competitiveness and access to markets in the SADC region under a changing climate”. The meeting sought to address poor results according to the recent 3rd CAADP Biennial Review Reports showing that SADC countries, and all African countries except Rwanda, had not attained the set CAADP performance benchmark. On the other hand, climate change remains a significant constraint affecting agriculture in the region, and the mainstreaming of climate-smart agriculture indicators in tracking Malabo Commitments is critical. This calls for key actors, including the NARs, to play their part in addressing these challenges.
Given the role of CCARDESA in coordinating regional cooperation in research and development, the meeting also aimed at engaging the NARS about their delivery of services to the farmers and mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture, including tracking climate-relevant Science, Technology and Innovation to support the implementation of the Malabo Commitments. Another objective was to rally the NARS in the implementation of the Malabo Declaration (CAADP), the Regional Agriculture Policy (RAP) and regional strategy for food and nutrition security, the Science Agenda in Agriculture for Africa (S3A) as well as the food systems transformation. Last but not least, the meeting sought to obtain feedback on the relevance of the priorities CCARDESA needs to address in the medium to the long-term plan, given the unfolding global, continental and regional trends.
The CCARDESA Board Chairperson, Dr Frank Kayula, officially opened the meeting. Dr Kayula thanked all the participants for taking time off their busy schedules to attend the meeting. He highlighted that the meeting was taking place against a backdrop of the global developments impacting agriculture and people’s livelihoods, which calls for all to adjust to such changes proactively. “ As a representative from a farmer organisation, I have first-hand experience on how climate change is affecting agriculture in our country and the region as a whole, said Dr Kayula.
He also stressed that the SADC region continues to grapple with food insecurity and high youth unemployment and that agriculture is a potential vehicle to generate jobs. He lamented the fact that research solutions are still not reaching end-users. In addition, he cited the limited value addition to agricultural produce depriving countries of much-needed revenue. Dr Kayula indicated that on the policy front, the recent 3rd CAADP Biennial review shows that all our countries in the region failed to attain the agreed performance benchmark. He lastly applauded CCARDESA’s sustained effort to promote climate-smart agriculture through some projects supported by development partners such as the German Government, the European Union and the World Bank.
Presenting his remarks, CCARDESA Executive Director Prof. Cliff Dlamini indicated that CCARDESA increasingly intends to work with the private agriculture sector. He also informed the meeting that CCARDESA undertook a study to review its partnerships in 2021 to identify gaps that would empower the secretariat to do more if addressed. He indicated that some cracks were identified around empowerment, knowledge and capacity development, and open data to facilitate the adoption of AR4D partnership innovations. He emphasised the urgent need for interventions in areas that were deemed to be lagging.
Prof Dlamini also informed the participants that CCARDESA had developed a resource mobilisation strategy and action plan and intends to develop a Business Development Unit to address funding limitations. He further shared how CCARDESA was set to embark on joint resource mobilisation with various partners.
CCARDESA officers presented several programmes/ projects that CCARDESA was implementing to address the regional challenges. Most focused on addressing climate change by promoting climate-smart agriculture and resilience. The meeting noted gaps in addressing interventions related to other commodities such as livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture and the need to develop programmes targeting these critical areas.
The meeting also reflected on the level of funding provided by Member States to agricultural research and development. The meeting observed that the region needed to do more to support agriculture R&D. The stakeholders proposed advocacy to encourage countries to allocate more support to agricultural R&D at the country and regional levels. The proposal for CCARDESA to establish a business development Unit was also endorsed by stakeholders in the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, specific actions were proposed to improve each of the six CCARDESA 6 thematic areas that will guide CCARDESA implementation in the coming years. Participants developed action plans on how climate-relevant innovation could be mainstreamed.
The meeting was attended by Directors of Research, Directors of Extension, Deans of Agriculture, Regional R&D Organisations, FAO, Youth representatives, agricultural NGOs and other development partners. These stakeholders are expected to use the information gained from the engagement to improve the situations.
