Agricultural Input, Service Providers and NGOs

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.

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.

Implementation of the CCARDESA MTOP is expected to have a positive impact on the environment by supporting the development and dissemination of agricultural technologies that promote sustainable use of land and water. The MTOP will also contribute towards reducing the vulnerability of poor rural households to climate shocks by promoting the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices. There is no doubt that CCARDESA’s footprint could be significant if no measures were put in place to guide the social and environmental responsibility of the work conducted in the sub-region.

Climate change is one of the major challenges that are confronting developing countries. Rural women in Zimbabwe are one of the most hard hit populace groups. The study sought to investigate how rural women are affected by climate change in relation to their livelihoods. It also explores women’s perception of climate change and the effects of those perceptions on adapting to climate change. Emphasis is made on the effects of climate change on crop production, livestock production and water sources focusing on Tsholotsho District in Zimbabwe. The study used a qualitative approach to obtain data on the effects of climate change. One of the major findings of the study was that the impact of climate change undermines women’s livelihoods which are rain-fed thus leading to accelerated food insecurity problems and heightened impoverishment. The paper concludes that women in rural areas must be prioritized in development programming especially in agriculture to ameliorate impending and inevitable climate change induced food insecurity. 

In Namibia, agriculture employs 30% of the labour force and contributes 7.5% to GDP. More than 60% of the farming is done by subsistence farmers. The sector is facing challenges such as low soil fertility and water shortage. To counter these challenges, sustainable land management practices are needed, but subsistence farmers face constraints in adopting these practices. Hence, this study was conducted to identify what practices the farmers are currently using and what constraints they are facing in adopting sustainable land management practices. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 farmers in the Oshikoto Region. The interviews were recorded, transcribed word for word and thematic analysis applied to the answers. The study showed that the farmers were using some sustainable practices such as manure and mould from termite hills as fertilizer. However, unsustainable practices such as tractor-drawn disk harrows and inorganic fertilizer were also used. The constraints that affectfarmers’ adoption of sustainable land management practices include climate characteristics,especially low and unpredictable rainfall; limited farmland size; lack of extension services and institutional support; labour shortages; and lack of finances and other resources. Based on these findings it is recommended that extension delivery to farmers in the study area must be strengthened, that projects combating climate change must be down streamed to subsistencefarmers, and that farmers should be encouraged and supported to use ‘easy to adopt’sustainable practices, e.g. crop rotation and ripping. It is also suggested that long-term weather forecasts should be made available to the farmers through the radio. This could have a significantly positive impact on the environment as well as on subsistence farmers’ situationand household food security.

This document describes the requirements to move dogs and cats out of or into Botswana successfully without putting the animals in distress.

The project mainstreams the climate risk considerations in the Land Rehabilitation Programme of Lesotho for improved ecosystem resilience and reduced vulnerability of livelihoods to climate shocks.