SYNTHESIS OF OUTCOMES FROM SADC LAND & WATER MANAGEMENT SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM 14 – 16 FEBRUARY 2006, MALAWI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (MIM), LILONGWE, MALAWI

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INTRODUCTION

The SADC Land and Water Management Applied Research Programme held its first Scientific Symposium at the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) in Lilongwe, Malawi from 14 – 16 February 2006. The theme for the symposium was “Land and Water Management for Sustainable Agriculture”. The symposium was attended by more than 60 delegates drawn from eight of the 10 participating SADC Member States (Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In total 47 papers were received (3, 20, 12 and 7 papers for Sub-themes 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively and 5 papers for a special session on policy issues). The symposium was officially opened by the Honourable Deputy Minister of Malawi Agriculture and Food Security Ministry and it was attended by senior Malawi Government officials and Ambassaddors and High Commissioners from Mozambique, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Also in attendance was a delegate from the EC commission in Malawi. The official opening was followed by a plenary session with a Keynote address by Professor Kanyama Phiri followed by addresses from the SADC Secretariat and the FAO Regional Office representatives, respectively. The symposium closed with a plenary session where syntheses from various sub-themes were presented. It was officially closed by the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Delegates and dignitaries at symposium, MIM, Lilongwe, Malawi

The sessions on the sub-themes and the special session on policy were conducted back-to-back in separate conference halls. Of the 47 papers received, five papers were not presented as participants experienced travel difficulties. Each sub-theme had a Chairperson and two rapporteurs who met at the end of each day to ensure all salient points during presentations and discussions had been captured. For each sub-theme, key findings and recommendations of each paper were summarised. The findings and recommendations from each paper were compared across all papers in the sub-theme. Thereafter, recommendations were made in terms of conceptual and methodological issues arising from the sub-theme. The conceptual and methodological issues were then related to practical concerns and problems faced by small scale farming communities in the SADC region. Mid-symposiun field visits in and around Lilongwe, to link theory with the actual practice by smallholder farmers were conducted. The following syntheses are therefore arranged according to deliberations on each sub-theme and nature of field trip as indicated above.

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