Cross sectoral extension workshop

​Phuhlisani NPC organised a successful online cross sectoral extension workshop on the 30th September 2021. The workshop was on Zoom and made use of a Jamboard as the workshop collaboration tool.
The workshop brought together a wide range of state and non-state actors including:

• WWF
• SANBI
• Department of Environmental Affairs
• South African National Parks
• ARC
• DALRRD
• Provincial Agriculture
• Cape Nature
• Botanical Society of South Africa
• GIZ

However given the online format of the workshop key voices were missing – those of the small producers seeking access to land and resources through the land reform and farmer support programmes.
Following an introduction to the CBPEP programme and an input providing background on the planning work in Matzikama participants broke into working three working groups focused on

• Livestock and rangeland management
• Sustainable farming systems for irrigation and dryland crop production
• Conservation, restoration and drought risk mitigation

The fourth breakout on food security, food systems and value chains 

​Enrolment in the different groups reflected the conservation and natural resource backgrounds of the majority of the participants.

Valuable discussions were held in each group. Overall, the workshop played an important role in bringing a variety of different actors, all working independently on different programmes into the same space. It highlighted the real value in collaboration and sharing of data and information. However at the same time the workshop underscored the challenges which have to be overcome if collaboration is to be institutionalised as a way of working.

It was clear that there were quite fundamental differences of approach with regard to natural resource management. These surfaced within the livestock and rangeland management group where the ARC and Extension staff in the Provincial Department of Agriculture operate from different rangeland management paradigms. There was agreement that a follow-up session to focus on this issue in more depth would be valuable. Ideally such a session should be face to face as the online meeting platforms necessarily exclude smallholder livestock farmers from remote rural areas like Rietpoort.