Land and water management in Southern Africa: towards sustainable agriculture

The overall objective of the SADC Land and Water Management Applied Research and Training Programme is to increase the availability of improved and appropriate land and water management technologies to research and development institutions in the SADC region for subsequent dissemination to farmers, particularly smallholder farmers. Through this programme, SADC has held two scientific symposiums on land and water management. The inaugural symposium was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, on 14-16 February, 2006. It brought together research and development practitioners from 10 participating SADC countries to deliberate on the theme ‘Land and water management for sustainable agriculture’. The edited and amplified proceedings of this first symposium appear in the present collective volume, grouped into five subthemes, viz. Policy changes in land and water management technology development: country case studies; Translating policy recommendations into legislation in land and water management: the case of sustainable utilisation of ‘dambos’ and wetlands; Indigenous knowledge in land and water management; Community-based agricultural natural resources management; and Socioeconomic issues in land and water management. [ASC Leiden abstract]