Creative Commons – Attribution - NonCommercial (CCBYNC)

The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) embarked on an effort to promote sustainable value-addition to commonly grown food legumes and increase incomes among smallholder farmers in Zambézia and Niassa Provinces (Guruè, Lichinga, Cuamba, Muembe and Chimbonila Districts). About 913 small-scale farmers (610 females) were trained in legume grain selection, packaging, sealing and labelling. Forty (40) Extension staff were also trained so that they could train other farmers not reached by the project. APPSA introduced new agro- processing technologies of legumes in the same five districts, where the farmers were trained in processing of the legumes into different legume products. Farmers applied the agro-processing skills they learnt to improve food security and generate income through sales of their products.

Le Programme de productivité agricole de l'Afrique australe (APPSA) est une initiative conçue sur six ans (2013 à 2018) pour améliorer la production et la diffusion des technologies entre les pays participants en Afrique australe. Le programme est financé par le mécanisme de prêt de la Banque mondiale à hauteur de 30 millions de dollars US pour chaque pays participant. L'APPSA a été lancé avec la participation des trois pays suivants: Malawi, Mozambique et Zambie. D'autres pays de larégion de la SADC devraient s’y joindre au fur et à mesure de l'évolution du projet.

Agricultural productivity in the region is far below potential. Although productivity has increased in recent years within Southern Africa, most of the growth has come from bringing previously unculti- vated land into production, rather than from inten- sification made possible by technical change. Southern Africa offers attractive opportunities for regional research. Groups of countries within Southern Africa share similar agro-ecological zones and farming systems, suggesting that there is potential for finding shared solutions to common problems. Although technology spillover is already occurring within the sub-region, significant poten- tial remains for expanding spillovers.

The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) is a six year (2013 –2018) initiative to improve technology generation and dissemination within and among participating countries in southern Africa. The Programme is funded by the World Bank loan facility to the tune of US$ 30 million for each participating country. APPSA has been launched with the participation of three countries—Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. Other countries in the SADC region are expected to join as the project evolves.

This progress report describes key achievements during the project implementation period from 1 January to 31 December 2017. The project was in its 4th year of implementation.

In 2016, the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) was in its third year of implementation in the three countries (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia). CCARDESA provided the regional coordination role. The aim of APPSA is to strengthen and scale up regional cooperation in generation of technologies, capacity building, and knowledge sharing in food legumes, rice and maize. The project has three key components: (1) Technology Generation and Dissemination; (2) Strengthening Regional centres of Leadership; and (3) Coordination and Facilitation.

This technical progress report covers the period from 1 January to 31 December 2015, and is intended to provide an update on key achievements during the reporting period. Implementation of the project activities at national and at regional level followed the three components, namely, (a) Technology Generation and Dissemination, (b) Strengthening of Regional Centres of Leadership and (c) Coordination and Facilitation. Regional coordination and facilitation activities were elaborated in the annual work plan that was developed by CCARDESA and endorsed by the implementing countries. The key activities in the work plan included Regional Review and Strategic Meetings, Technical backstopping and Networking, Monitoring and Evaluation, Facilitation of Information-sharing Platforms, Trainings and Workshops, Policy Harmonization and Advocacy. The country work plans were approved by the respective national steering committees.

This is the first technical progress report for the project and it covers the period from 1 July 2013 to 31 December 2014. The report is intended to provide an abridged update on key deliverables during the reporting period. Sequential reports will follow the agreed reporting cycle, i.e. semi-annual reports covering the activities of each semester (Jan to June and July to December).

The CCARDESA 2015 Work plan devoted attention to driving activities initiated in previous years, particularly 2014.The operational momentum of activities was built up throughout 2014 with the awarding of CCARDESA supported research grants and implementation of a total of 69 projects. Therefore, the focus in 2015 was on accelerating the implementation of these activities including those identified as quick wins or low hanging fruits in the CCARDESA Medium Term Operational Plan (MTOP)

This report highlights the key achievements for CCARDESA in 2015. It is organised around the four thematic areas and cross-cutting themes that are of priority to the region. These four thematic Areas are: (1) Farmer Empowerment and Market Access; (2) Research and Technology Generation and Farmer Demanddriven Advisory Services and Innovation Systems; (3) Knowledge, Information and Communication; and (4) Institutional Development and Capacity Building. Under a resource-constrained environment facing R&D institutions globally, emphasis in 2015 was strategically directed at innovative implementation of regional activities across all the thematic areas.

This Governance Manual is a guide to CCARDESA’s governance institutions (Ministers responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, the General Assembly, CCARDESA Board of Directors and CCARDESA Secretariat) in the conduct of their responsibilities and duties. It is also a reference document for all CCARDESA stakeholders who wish to know how CCARDESA is governed. It assures development partners that CCARDESA observes the principles of good governance to which they are bound in allocating their resources.