Portuguese Embassies across the world in the month of March 2021 hosted several online “Green Talks” in the month leading up to the High level Economic and Green Investment Forum EU-Africa, to take place in Lisbon on the 22-23 of April. These Green Talks aim at sharing experiences, innovative approaches, and opportunities to mobilize private and public capital and expertise towards the Green Transition in Africa and in Europe. The Embassy of Portugal in Harare takes part in this initiative, with the cooperation of the Delegations of the European Union in Harare, Lilongwe and Lusaka as well as the Regional Representation for the European Investment Bank’s Southern Africa & Indian Ocean hosted a Green Talk on Climate-smart Agriculture bringing together different actors from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The event will took place online on the 30th of March 2021
Back ground
Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA) is a methodological approach to farming with three main objectives: to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes; to adapt and build resilience to climate change; and to reduce and/or remove greenhouse gas emissions, where possible. CSA therefore aims at developing agricultural strategies to secure sustainable food security efficiently, which may be summarized as “producing more with less damage”. The European Union (EU) has been on the forefront of CSA by adopting in its territory methods and technologies that promote social, environmental and economic sustainability in agriculture. This development allows European farmers to better withstand the uncertain weather patterns, which are characteristic to the climate change we are facing while, at the same time, avoid contributing to environmental degradation. South-eastern Africa, where Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are located, is one of the regions of the Planet that has suffered the most with extreme weather conditions: droughts, floods, cyclones, to name but a few. They have also suffered with environmental degradation derived from bad practices, such as deforestation. Farmers in these countries have been severely affected by these meteorological phenomena and bad practices, impairing economic growth and social development. The EU, its Member States and the European Investment Bank have been promoting CSA in these three countries through the support for farming projects that share the above-mentioned objectives. This Green Talk aims at sharing experiences of CSA in the Region, debate innovative approaches in this regard and discuss opportunities to mobilize private and public capital and expertise towards the promotion of Climate Smart Agriculture in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The talk also aims at the exchange of common and differentiated problems and solutions in agriculture and environmental protection, as well as how agribusinesses can prosper in the three countries.
Permaculture Paradise Institute shared their experiences as entrepreneurs in Agriculture and Permaculture as a design science to implement climate smart Agribusinesses. We wold like to thank the European Union Delegation to Malawi for the trusting us that we can represent Malawi and share our story on how we can address Climate related challenges that Malawians face.
