By Happy Mulolani & Dorcas Kabuya
To share knowledge products with farmer communities in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region, The Centre For Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) earmarked to develop Information Communication (ICT) knowledge products.
Knowledge Management is one of the key outputs of CCARDESA; the program envisions “developing a coordinated framework and infrastructure that makes available climate-relevant science technology and innovation (STI) to support National Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation systems (NAKIS) in learning and sharing opportunities.”
CCARDESA Executive Director, Professor Cliff Dlamini, says the programme will endeavor to share vital information with communities to empower them.
Professor Dlamini explains that CCARDESA is entrusted with serving as a central hub of knowledge and information, as it plays a pivotal role in providing information to the target audience.
He thanked researchers, partners, and communication experts for their input in validating ICT knowledge products.
Professor Dlamini was speaking in a speech read by Ms. Lerang Maruping on his behalf during the official opening of an ICT-Based knowledge products validation workshop in South Africa. The workshop drew participants from all 16 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member states.
“Sharing insights from experts in designing short videos has been an integral part of the journey,” he said.
Professor Dlamini said the process is meant to look at critical factors such as how ICT bridges the gap between the farmers. It also takes cognizant of the feedback mechanism pertinent to shared knowledge.
He commended stakeholders for the support and involvement of SADC member states in their efforts to achieve collective outcomes. They benchmarked Transboundary Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs), agriculture, and research for the generated knowledge products.
CCARDESA Information and Knowledge Management Officer Bridget Kakuwa-Kasongamulilo explained that the premise of initiating the ICTs was meant to cater to all groups of people, including persons with disabilities.
“CCARDESA is developing knowledge products for all without leaving anyone behind,” Mrs Kasongamulilo said.
She pointed out that this validation meeting calls for collaboration with different stakeholders to enhance enormous contributions toward finalizing the ICT videos.
Mrs. Kasongamulilo stressed the idea of collaboration between stakeholders and farmers, presenting different narratives that should explore relevant content and ensure that knowledge products and technologies are shared.
She stated the need for more resource mobilization to generate knowledge products from all the 16 member countries that speak more to people in the long term. In this way, the knowledge products will have the intended effect on the audience, a positive outcome.
Knowledge Management Focal Person for Malawi, Hector Malaidza, said that producing knowledge-based videos is impactful as it depicts visual representations of agricultural value chains and enhances knowledge sharing between experts, researchers, extension officers, and farmers.
While Information, Communication, and Knowledge Management Focal Point Person from Botswana, Lorato Bailang Kgakatsi, commended Ccardesa for engaging New Edition to develop short videos on the need to tell the African story creatively.
“New Edition has told authentic stories that reflect the African story of living with wildlife and also gives a glimpse of the positive representation of Africa through these videos,” Ms Kgakatsi affirmed.
With the insights shared, ICT knowledge products must be informative and educative on various agricultural value chains to be impactful. More importantly, making these knowledge products accessible will be vital in upscaling farmers' production capacities.
The workshop was insightful and saw the validation of 16 videos addressing the diverse needs of the SADC member states. Participants left happy that they had made history by faithfully contributing to the discovery, creation, and development of videos that will live to tell the CCARDESA story to the now and next generations.
The Authors are Agricultural Information Officers at the National Agriculture Information Services (NAIS) in Zambia. Dorcas is also the CCARDESA ICKM focal point person and Happy is the TFCAs correspondent for CCARDESA.
