To compliment the workshop program, several poster presentations were made in the open roundavel next to the conference room. The following is a summary of the major presentations

The objective of this presentation was to provide information on the activities of the animal traction research and development. The display included steps in rural development which included:

• needs assessment
• prototype development
• on-farm testing
• monitoring and evaluation
• manufacture
• marketing and promotion.

The objective of this presentation was to provide program information. Small holder Agricultural production in East and Southern Africa is hampered by the shortage and low productivity of labor. SAMeP aims at increasing agricultural productivity and profitability in the rural areas of Zambia. Its activities are primarily geared towards making relevant technologies including the necessary hardware available and accessible to the farmers and rural entrepreneurs.

Highlights of SAMEP activities include

• to promote manufacture of conservation tillage equipment and post-harvest machinery
• to promote distribution and marketing of animal traction and post harvest equipment
• to promote improved supply and management of draft animals.
• encourage liaison and networking both at national and international level with public and private sector.

The objectives of this presentation were to show the importance of indigenous systems in soil conservation and highlight the risks of animal traction on land degradation. The main points of the presentation were:

• Indigenous soil conservation tillage systems still play and important role.
• However they are labor intensive and difficult to mechanize thus limiting the cropped land.
• Animal traction like any other conventional flat cultivation whether by hand or tractor has the potential of increasing land degradation
• deforestation for agricultural land expansion or fuel wood, bush fires and overgrazing are the other sources of land degradation.
• the incorporation of appropriate soil conservation measures such as contour bunds, (mechanical, agronomic and vegetative) is important in animal traction systems, as it is on the increase.
• Appropriate use of implements is important in animal traction to reduce risks of land degradation.
• Participatory community based approaches are important in the adoption of soil conservation techniques.

The objective of this presentation was to show five new implements for small holder farmers that have been tested in the North and central Divisions of Namibia. The implements were the Cultivator BS41, light plough, yellow cultivator, green cultivator and the hand push weeder. The message was enhancing animal traction for farm operations on smallholder farms.

Since 1996 there has been promotion of the use of draft animal power in the NCD in Namibia.

Different extension messages have been developed to help the agricultural extension techniques relay the messages to the farmers.

The objective of the presentation was to show work that is going on and the results of soil and water conservation tillage trials conducted since 1995.

Highlights of the presentation were:

• soil management techniques play a role in influencing the water balance of available lands under crops.
• tillage techniques in particular can increase or decrease the availability of water to crops by influencing water infiltration, runoff and underground drainage or deep percolation through seepage.
• during drought seasons mulch ripping allows the fields to wet up faster than mouldboard ploughing and this allows early crop establishment.
• This is the most sustainable system for deep, well-drained soils.
• tied ridging showed problems of delayed wetting-up due to high evaporation and deep percolation resulting in poor crop establishment in drought-prone seasons

The objective of this presentation was to raise awareness among technicians and engineers on the importance of gender issues in agricultural engineering and in their daily work.

Highlights of the poster were:

• A brief introduction on gender issues in agricultural engineering
• Two picture stories explaining in an illustrative, comical and thoughtful way, how women farmers are often neglected, or just overseen in the day to day work of extension or development workers.

"Making each and every farmer count" was a book and poster, produced by FAO. It presented six case studies of agricultural engineering projects in Africa which had employed a range of techniques to get farmers to participate in projects and to adopt or adapt technologies. Some of the techniques had worked but many of them had failed. The presentation was intended to convince middle and senior level agricultural engineers working in Government, University academics; and project practitioners that adopting a gender approach was the only way to make sure that each and every farmer counts.