About the symposium The Conservaon Agriculture (CA) Symposium is a research, development oriented and interdisciplinary conference. It provides a plaorm for conservaon agriculture research and development stakeholders in Malawi to network, share experiences and lessons learning towards enhanced capacity for implemenng a CA innovaon systems approach that results in biophysical, social, economic, instuonal and policy impacts for agricultural and socioeconomic development in Malawi. In order to leverage on the new developments from research carried out to generate an evidence base for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) as well as the current developments from the CSA Africa Alliance which aims to leverage exisng CSA iniaves and the strengths and capacies of each Alliance member to deliver results at scale and drive policy reform, the conference will serve as the 1st Forum for CSA in Malawi in order to share findings from studies carried out in Malawi as part of the CSA-readiness for the country. The findings represent crical inputs into policy responses and programming essenal to building resilience or adaptaon in the country’s largely rain-fed agricultural sector. The 2015 3rd biennial CA Symposium and 1st CSA Forum, which was inially planned to be held in December 2014 but postponed to May 2015, is jointly organized by the Naonal Conservaon Agriculture Task Force (NCATF) and the Department of Land Resources Conservaon – in collaboraon with stakeholders and development partners who support the Task Force. Who should aend? The CA/CSA Symposium invites sciensts, students, graduates, farmers, the private sector, development experts, media, funding organizaons and their various internaonal partners. Young sciensts are parcularly encouraged to present their CA research results. The 2015 symposium/forum theme is: “Scaling up Conservaon and Climate Smart Agriculture for Resilient agricultural systems” Sustainably producing crops for food and industrial use in the face of land degradaon, climate uncertainty, populaon growth and changing labour demography requires innovave producon systems that ensure adaptaon of, or builds resilient agricultural systems. Keynote addresses, poster and theatre presentaons will be used to facilitate dialogue along seven sub – themes on issues that impact the development and scale up of CA in Malawi and going forward, CSA. Sub - Theme 1 : Pung farmer’s needs first: Tailoring the CA Packages. Sub - Theme 2 : Understanding CA value chain. Sub - Theme 3 : Availing appropriate tools and equipment for CA farmers – a realisc strategy for Malawi. Sub - Theme 4 : Policy environment as it affects CA and recommendaons for increased CA adopon. Sub - Theme 5 : Effecve research and innovave strategies for enhanced CA adopon. Sub - Theme 6 : The role of CA in ecosystem based adaptaon. Sub – Theme 7 : Climate-Smart Agriculture readiness. The symposium will receive contribuons in form of scienfic papers, case studies and posters specifically based on work in Malawi that: i. Discuss and explore ways of dealing with emerging issues in food and livelihood security and enhance naonal cooperaon with CSA/CA as the response pillar; ii. Share, document and discuss biophysical, social and economic impacts of current CA/CSA investments in food and livelihood security as well as exisng opportunies and challenges; iii. Discuss drivers and enablers for CA/CSA in ecosystem based adaptaon; iv. Share and document experiences on CA/CSA scale up approaches and impacts and the role of innovaon systems in scaling up adopon of CA/CSA; v. Idenfy appropriate mechanisms to enhance collaboraon and networking for effecve engagements among stakeholders towards instuonal and policy innovaons for CA/CSA scale up; vi. Idenfy priories and suggest ways for enhancing human resource development and capacity building for CA/CSA; vii. Idenfy praccal, innovave, integrave funding and investment opportunies for CA/CSA in Malawi; viii. Idenfy market opportunies for CA/CSA adopters. Symposium outputs It is expected that the Symposium will yield the following outputs: i. Informaon on the biophysical, social and economic impacts of conservaon agriculture and climate-smart agriculture pracces in Malawi shared and documented; ii. Experiences on CA/CSA scale up approaches and impacts shared and documented; iii. Key areas for research and development for conservaon agriculture and climate- smart agriculture scale up idenfied; and iv. Key areas for instuonal and policy innovaons for CA/CSA scale up idenfied. Symposium structure and procedure The 2015 CA Symposium and CSA Forum is organized for three full days inclusive of a field visit on the second day of the symposium. Keynote speakers, oral presentaons, guided poster sessions and a number of displays will address major issues of the symposium. It is expected that a farmers’ forum will be arranged to host a panel discussion with farmers selected by partner instuons of the NCATF to interact with the symposium delegates. Interested stakeholders should contact the Secretariat for further informaon on the farmer parcipaon. Symposium locaon and costs The 2015 Conservaon Agriculture Symposium/ Climate-Smart Agriculture Forum will be • held at Cross Roads Hotel in Lilongwe. The symposium will cover costs of refreshments, lunches, venue and materials for all • parcipants. Parcipants will however be required pay a registraon fee of MK50,000 to cater for the costs above and will have to finance their own accommodaon, transport and dinner. Contacts All enquiries should be sent to: The Secretariat Naonal Conservaon Agriculture Task Force (NCATF) Department of Land Resources Conservaon P. O. Box 30291 LiLONgWe 3 Tel.: 01755049/01755048 e-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]. government of Malawi Ministry of Agriculture irrigaon and Water Development 3RD Biennial Conservaon Agriculture Symposium and 1st Climate Smart Agriculture Forum 2015 Department of Land Resources Conservaon May 26-28, 2015 Cross Roads, Lilongwe, Malawi “Scaling up Conservaon and Climate Smart Agriculture for Resilient Agricultural Systems” Announcement