Written by Zambia’s Ministry of Agriculture, the Conservation Farming Unit and WWF jointly hosted Zambia’s first Conservation Agriculture Indaba on February 25th and 26th in Lusaka.
The aim of the two-day Indaba was to bring together as many of the independent organizations actively promoting CA in Zambia as well as senior members and Provincial Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Donor organizations invested in Agriculture in Zambia, Agriculture Research Institutions, the Ministry of Finance, Farmers, and Agriculture focused Private Sector companies as possible, with a view to examining the impact being made by CA in the country and establishing a way to push its adoption forward.
The Indaba was attended by over 250 participants, and was opened by his Hon. Micheal Katambo, the Minister of Agriculture, who was joined by the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture Mr. Songowayo Zyambo, the Head of DFID Mr Steve Beel, and Chief’s Chibwika and Chikanta.
The gathering, its presentations and group discussions left no doubt that the upscaling of CA is an urgent priority. There was no question regarding IF the technologies work, only how to increase their foothold.
The Indaba is informing the development of a National Framework for scaling up CA, addressing issues such as coordination, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, leveraging existing efforts, agreed understandings of what constitutes adoption of CA and which elements to focus on as priorities.
