Zimbabwe International Research Symposium 9th Edition Book of Proceedings

The proceedings are presented as five distinct sections under the headings Agricultural Sciences; Environment and Natural Resources; National Security; Health Sciences; and Social Sciences. The sections were drawn from the National Research Priority Area, which were the focus of the symposium, which are 1. Social Sciences and Humanities 2. Sustainable Environment and Natural Resources Management 3. Promoting and Maintaining Good Health 4. National Security The opening addresses are preceded by the Keynote speech which was appropriately titled “REALISING THE POTENTIAL OF SCIENCE AND TECNOLOGY TO IMPROVE AFRICAN LIVELIHOODS”. The keynote speech gave a sobering reminder of the contradictions inherent in the economic growth, science and technology in Africa. While there is a general annual growth of 5% across Africa, up to 40% of the populations live below the poverty datum line. In a sense, the keynote speech set the scene for the presentation of the plenary papers. The speech hinted on the agricultural sciences potential of Africa by informing the delegates that 60% of the world’s uncultivated land and 25% of land for agriculture is in Africa. However we have to take cognisance of the fact that perhaps one of the major and route cause of Africa’s problems is that there is limited exploitation of science and technologies. The symposium is one way of demonstrating that there is an attempt to addressing this problem. In particular, most of the agricultural papers presented at the parallel sessions have a palpable applied science and technological slant. The paper on the comparison of the effectiveness of organic manure, inorganic fertilizers and integrated soil fertility management on coffee plant growth is one example, so is the use of plant extracts to control plant pathogens in “Efficacy of Botanical Extracts from Garlic on controlling Potato Soft Rot Pathogens”. The use of satellite remote sensing to estimate maize yield is a paper which seemed to directly answer the call from the Keynote Speech. The recent diamond boom in Zimbabwe is topical globally. It is therefore gratifying that the “Environment and Natural Resources” section had a paper presented on “Automation systems for the Optimisation of Diamond processing Technologies in Zimbabwe”. The paper reported on the results of an evaluation of the level of scientific and technological preparedness of iii Zimbabwe compared to other global diamond processing industries. Ultimately the objective is to add commercial value to the diamond industry in Zimbabwe. This is a positive direction to take for Africa in general as far as exploitation of its natural resources is concerned. In the “Promoting and Maintaining Good Health” section it is pointed out that use and implementation of Electronic Health Records significantly revitalises health delivery, as it is cost effective, efficient and it increases patient safety. One of the Social sciences papers reveals that the socio-cultural impact of electronic media on youth points out that youth spent a lot of time on electronic media and they seem to benefit by getting educational value, research skills and social networking skills. The few papers quoted here give a glimpse of the diversity and scope of the research work being conducted especially in Zimbabwe. One hopes and is encouraged to believe that this trend will continue into the next symposium and the next one after that and so on