The Agricultural sector remains the main source of growth and employment in most countries in the SADC region but low productivity remains a challenge says Dr. ME Mogajane a Board Member for The Center for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA).
Dr. Mogajane who was speaking during the End of Project Conference for the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) taking place in Johannesburg from 27-29 November 2019.
Given that the Project is coming to an end in January 2020 and most of the R&D projects have been completed and research outputs have been generated, an end of project conference was proposed in order to facilitate the sharing of research outputs with a broader group of APPSA stakeholders.
Thus, the purpose of the conference was to provide a forum for research and development practitioners to present and discuss outputs from the APPSA research, innovations, best practices in agriculture and lessons learnt.
Dr. Mogajane challenged researchers under the project to disseminate the information generated to the farmers in order for the region to be food and nutritional secure.
APPSA is a six-year project (2013 – 2019) financed by the World Bank. The project has three key components: (1) Technology Generation and Dissemination; (2) Strengthening Regional centres of Leadership; and (3) Coordination and Facilitation.
The project’s objective is to increase the availability of improved agricultural technologies in participating countries in the SADC region through: (i) establishing Regional Centres of Leadership (RCoLs) on commodities of regional importance; (ii) supporting regional collaboration in agricultural research, technology dissemination, and training; and (iii) facilitating increased sharing of agricultural information, knowledge, and technology among participating countries. Implementation of APPSA is based on partnerships and collaborations among three participating countries (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia).
Malawi is focusing on maize- based farming systems, Mozambique on rice-based farming systems, and Zambia on food legumes-based farming systems (involving beans, cowpeas, groundnuts, pigeon peas, and soybeans). Additional countries within the SADC region are expected to join as APPSA evolves and expands.
