International Policy Research Organisations

This presentation is CSA scoping study which was undertaken in order to establish the status of CSA understanding and implementation in SA at different levels and to establish the current CSA Policy framework in South Africa in terms of effectiveness and equity.

Maize is currently grown on 35 million hectares of land in Africa and is easily the most important staple food crop in the continent, feeding more than 200-300 million people and providing income security to millions of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, African maize growers face many challenges, including lower than average yields, crop susceptibility to pests and diseases, and abiotic stresses such as droughts. They generally lack access to high yielding improved seed and other farming innovations that could help them overcome those challenges.

The Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, launched in 2010, supports farmers and partner organizations to achieve increased food production while minimizing pressure on the environment by using smallholder farmers’ resources more efficiently.

SIMLESA is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It is implemented by national agricultural research systems, agribusinesses and farmers in partner countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

A new video highlights the outcomes and achievements of the SIMLESA project and it features interviews with farmers and scientists.

This  report  analyses  the  status  of  incorporation  of  climate  change  adaptation  and  climate-smart agriculture (CSA) measures in the SADC Member States’ agriculture and food security frameworks and policies. It  details the current situation in the SADC member states  with respect to  the existence of policies, strategies and programmes that were primarily designed to build resilience to climate change among famers.

Adapting to the negative impacts of climate change is a pressing challenge for  anyone engaged in the agricultural sector. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable to these changes such as erratic weather patterns, increased water shortages, shorter growing seasons, and changes in plant and animals diseases and agricultural pests. As a result of these challenges, water availability and soil quality decline. The knowledge and skills that help farmers protect themselves against these changes are imperative. The Clinton Development Initiative(CDI) works with 25,000 smallholder farmers in Malawi to apply Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) adaptation and mitigation techniques on their farms. We sat down with Austin Ngwira, CDI’s Director of Agriculture, to learn more about how CSA is helping improve farmers’ food security with techniques that are more resilient to climate change. Read our Q&A with Austin below.

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 PROIntensAfrica project demonstrates the potential of the diversity of pathways for sustainable intensification in agri-food systems. It identifies future challenges for science and innovation to address. It documentates the salient characteristics of a successfull bi-continental research and innovation partnership, and drafts an outline for such partnerships.

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.

This Manual is a guide for the operation of the CCARDESA grant system. The contents in this document have been written and arranged in a manner which is intended for use internally and externally by the respondents as well as any other interested stakeholders. The manual endeavours to explain the processes to be followed in order to make the grant system as transparent and efficient as possible. All CCARDESA stakeholders in SADC Member States, financiers and respondents to the calls must have confidence that the process of selecting and allocating resources is the most efficient. Detailed annexes are provided to give additional information, guidelines and formats to ensure the preparation of proposals is standardised and evaluation is made easy.