SACCAR was established in 1984 by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), then known as the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) to coordinate agricultural research and training in the region. A Memorandum of Understanding signed by the then Member States of SADC, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Other countries joined as and when they got their independence

1. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
COORDINATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Dr Lucas P Gakale
Paper Presented at the CCARDESA General Assembly, Gaborone,
6-7 May 2014

2. PREAMBLE
SACCAR was established in 1984 by the Southern
African Development Community (SADC), then
known as the Southern African Development
Coordinating Conference (SADCC) to coordinate
agricultural research and training in the region.
A Memorandum of Understanding signed by the then
Member States of SADC, namely Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mauritius, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and
Zimbabwe. Other countries joined as and when they
got their independence

3. PREAMBLE cont.
The initiative to establish the regional agricultural
research centre was started by Professor Kristian Oland,
the then Director of Agricultural Research in Botswana
around 1983. He assembled a team comprised of among
others;
• Dr Martin Kyomo, then Dean of the Faculty of
Agriculture at Sokoine University, Tanzania,
• Dr Sam Muchena, then Director of the Department
of Research and Specialist Services, Zimbabwe
to assist in the development of the SACCAR program

4. OBJECTIVES
 To promote regional agricultural research among the
National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of
Member States
 Facilitate the exchange of information among the
NARS
 Promote the development of human resources
necessary to man the members states national
research institutions; and
 Promote coordination of agricultural research and
training within the region

5. Institutional Arrangements and Governance
 Botswana was allocated the responsibility to coordinate
agricultural research in the region.
 A regional center, namely SACCAR was established with
donor funding to assist Botswana carry out that mandate.
 The Center had four regional staff, namely the Director,
the Senior Programs Officer (Training), the Senior
Programs Officer (information and Documentation) and
Finance and Administrative Officer.
 These were assisted by a number of locally recruited staff.

6. Institutional Arrangements cont.
 SACCAR had a Board of Directors composed of Directors of
Agricultural Research or equivalent from all Member
States, one rep each from Agricultural Extension, Deans
Committee and the SADC Secretariat.
 The Director of Agricultural Research Botswana served as
the Chair of the Board.
 The Board had Steering Committees for each project
comprised of staff from all member States to steer the
projects to ensure that they meet the technical and
developmental objectives of the programs as they were
composed of people with the relevant technical skills.

7. Institutional Arrangements cont.
 For the degree training programs, there was a
Committee of Deans of the Faculties of Agriculture
from the member State Universities to serve the
same purpose
 The Board of SACCAR reported to the Ministers of
Food Agriculture and Natural Resources through
the Senior Officials (Permanent Secretaries and
equivalent) which was chaired by Zimbabwe as the
overall coordinator of the cluster of Food Security
and FANR sectors

8. Research Priorities and Projects
 The initial focus of the SACCAR research agenda was to
address the problems of the looming food insecurity and
nutrition in the region. Emphasis therefore was on food crops,
especially those grown in the semi-arid and marginal areas of
the region.
 A number of regional projects were developed and
implemented during the life of SACCAR and these were:
 The SADC/ICRISAT Sorghum and Millet Improvement
Program headquartered in Matopos, Zimbabwe
 The SADC/CIMMYT Maize Research Network with
headquarters near Harare
 The SADC/ICRISAT Groundnut Improvement Program based
in Malawi

9. Research Priorities cont.
 The SADC Bean Research Program based in Tanzania
 The SADC /AVRDC Vegetable Research Network based in
Arusha ,Tanzania
 The SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre based in Zambia
 The SADC/ISNAR In-Service Agricultural Research
Management Training Project
 The SADC/ILRI Animal Research Network
 The Southern African Root Crops Research Network
 The SACCAR/GTZ Project on Strengthening Faculties of
Agriculture in SADC
 The SADC Land and Water Management Research Project
 SACCAR/ICRAF Agroforestry project - Malawi

10. Research Priorities cont
 SACCAR had an Impact Assessment unit to
evaluate the impact of its programs and project
with the region manned by a Technical
Assistant funded by USAID and to
institutionalize impact assessment within the
NARS.
 Established an information and documentation
center which was a regional resource center.
 Recognized that for it to succeed, it has to forge
partnerships with national and international
agricultural research institutions including
those of the IARCs of the CIGAR system.

11. Research Priorities cont
 Projects implemented by NARS with the leadership of
scientists from the IARCs and advanced research
organizations.
 Invited cooperating and development partners once a
year to its meetings to receive progress reports and
assess the impact of their development assistance

12. Highlights of some projects
Sorghum and Millet Improvement Project
 Headquartered in Matopos in Zimbabwe with
projects in all members’ states where sorghum
and millets are important cash and food crops.
 Carried out in collaboration with ICRISAT
provided the international research staff.
 Bulk of funding came from USIAD.

13. Sorghum and Millet Improvement cont.
 Research on genetic improvement, through
breeding, disease resistance, drought tolerance
and food technology
 Improved sorghum and millet varieties and
hybrids released in participating member states.
Botswana the first ever locally released hybrid,
BSH1 developed in collaboration with the regional
project.
 Officers from Member States received training at
BSc, MSc and PhD sponsored by the project.
Hundreds of staff received short term training
through the project.

14. Plant Genetic Resources Project
 The SADC Plant Genetic Resources Center
headquartered in Zambia was funded by Sida.
 The project main object was to collect and
preserve the regional genetic resources.
 It also funded Member States to establish
National Genetic Resources Centers.

15. SACCAR/ISNAR Agricultural Research Management Training
 Two main objectives: strengthen the capacity of
agricultural research managers to organize and
manage research, and to institutionalize agricultural
research management training within region.
 ESAMI (Tanzania) served as the regional center for
the project. ISNAR the technical partner
 Between 1993 and 1995trained 397 officers in various
aspect of research management including strategic
planning, database and information management,
gender analysis in ANR, research program
formulation, etc.

16. The SACCAR/GTZ Project on Strengthening Faculties
of Agriculture in SADC
 Project started in 1988 and provided support
to 4 regional MSc programs and SACCAR
Secretariat.
 MSc Animal Science at Bunda College, Malawi,
 MSc Crop Science at University of Zambia,
 MSc Agricultural Economics at University of
Zimbabwe
 MSc Land and Water Management at the Sokoine
University, Tanzania.
 By 1998 the programs had produced more
than 75 graduates in those disciplines.

17. Transformation of SACCAR from Commission to SCU
 After South Africa joined SADC, decision made by the
Council of Ministers to merge the Southern African
Regional Commission on the Utilization of the Soils
(SARCCUS) with the SADC FANR Sectors.
 Understood the merger to mean the transfer of the
activities of SARCCUS various Standing Committees to
the relevant FANR Sectors.
 The SADC Secretariat and the overall Sector
Coordinator for FANR were directed to implement that
Council decision.

18. Transformation cont.
 Consultants engaged by the SADC Secretariat to carry out
the study. However to our dismay the consultants,
rationalization of SARCCUS and SACCAR.
 SACCAR stakeholders were never consulted or interviewed
by the consultants.
 Consultant report only seen at the meeting of the Board in
Maputo in May 1995.
 Main recommendation that affected SACCAR was that it
(SACCAR) should be phased out and replaced it with what
they called the Crops Sector.
 Concerns were raised by the Board regarding this
recommendation at a meeting of the FANR Sector in Harare
a few weeks later but were not addressed.

19. Transformation cont.
 At meeting of Senior Official in Harare in May 1996, the
consultant’s recommendations were discussed. We at
SACCAR tried unsuccessfully to advise that the
recommendations of the consultant to phase out SACCAR
were retrogressive.
 A compromise was to retain SACCAR as a Sector
Coordinating Unit and Council approved that
recommendation at its meeting in August 1996. To us in
the agricultural research community at the time we
considered the move very unfortunate.
 Our donor partners were also not happy with the
transformation from a Commission to a Sector
Coordinating Unit. Had a very difficult time trying to
explain this to our cooperating partners.

20. LESSONS LEARNT
 For small NARs like we have in SADC, regional
cooperation is the best way to address issues of
research resource constraints -finance and human
capital
 Networking and collaboration with IARs offers unique
opportunities for human resources development and
transfer of technology
 Research cooperation brings regional researchers
together thus fostering integration.
 Public research institutions produce public goods and
therefore the issue of non-state actors, especially the
private sector, should be engaged with caution lest
member state lose their intellectual property rights

21. REINCARNATION OF SACCAR AS CCARDESA
 I have not been following the work of regional
agricultural cooperation since 2001 when I left the
Ministry of Agriculture and therefore I am not sure
what happened to the regional projects and networks
that SACCAR had established.
 I am however glad to see the establishment of
CCARDESA as I hope this will resume the good
regional cooperation that had been established.

22. THANK YOU
THANK YOU