Preamble
The African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) in close liaison with partners convened the 1st Africa Congress on Conservation Agriculture (IACCA) in Lusaka, Zambia, from 18th to 21st March 2014. This was held under the theme "Conservation Agriculture (CA): Building entrepreneurship and resilient farming systems". The Congress brought together 414 delegates from 42 African and other countries of the world to share experiences and lessons and facilitate alliances to unblock hindrances to expanded and scaled-up adoption of CA, especially among the smallholder farming systems and related industry in Africa.
The congress was convened against the backdrop that 2014 has been designated by African Union Heads of State and Governments as the year for agriculture and food security, and marks the 10th anniversary of Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). It also marks the adoption of a new CAADP results framework, which recognizes the role of climate-smart agriculture in addressing agriculture and climate change challenges.
Summary of the 1st ACCA Declaration
In order to achieve the CAADP goal of 6% growth of the agricultural sector, we resolve that:
POLICY, POLITICAL COMMITMENT AND LEADERSHIP
1. We call for commitment from all national and international stakeholders in the public, private and civil sectors to support the up-scaling of CA as a climate smart technology to reach at least 25 million farmers across Africa by 2025.
2. Governments are called upon to create a conducive environment for the adoption and development of CA by investing more in CA education and extension; integrating CA training in educational curricula, and supporting CA farmers and their organizations.
3. Governments are called upon to create enabling policy environment to allow investment financing, and technological development including private sector involvement in CA related value chains.
4. Development partners are urged to increase support to CA programmes under the CAADP Agriculture climate agenda.
PRIVATE SECTOR ENGAGEMENT
5. Urge the Private sector to proactively support up scaling of CA through further innovations and increased investments financing in appropriate CA technologies and related services.
TRAINING, EXTENSION, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION, AND KNOWLEDGE SUPPORT
6. ACT is to establish a quality-assurance system for accredited agricultural training institutions to provide CA training certificates. Furthermore, ACT will collaborate with relevant stakeholders for the harmonization of CA training curricula.
7. Farmers who have adopted CA should be supported to be champions and educators for their counterparts. Furthermore, they should establish locally relevant collaborations, innovation platforms and associations that can engage with government and other CA actors.
8. Agricultural training institutions are requested to take up CA as an integral part of their training programmes and take part in farmer sensitization and training efforts.
9. Urge all concerned including FARA and the CGIAR to ensure research and extension on CA is farmer-focused and responsive to the needs of farming communities, and research findings should be communicated more effectively to inform decision making at different levels as well as to support knowledge management systems including extension and training.
10. ACT, in collaboration with FAO & Regional Economic Communities are called upon to support knowledge management by stakeholders, including the CA task forces.
Please find full document attached home3/actafric/public_html/image/Declaration of the First Africa Congress on Conservation Agriculture - 2014.pdf