The Mafwe Traditional Authority accorded land to the National Commission on Research Science and Technology (NCRST) for the establishment of a National Science, Technology and Innovation Park in the Liselo area, Zambezi region.

The park forms part of the government's efforts to promote and develop research focused on national priorities in regions of strategic importance based on regional needs.

In a speech delivered on her behalf, Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture Sanet Steenkamp said the Zambezi region has comparative advantages.

"The region has a comparative advantage of water, land and a young population, the precise inputs that agricultural technology, food processing and the bioeconomy require. What has been missing is the technical layer in between the testing, the certification, the training and the route that carries a good local idea to a product which can be sold."

Since 2014, NCRST has funded five research grants in the Zambezi region for the amount of N$3.2 million.

NCRST's Chief Executive Officer, Anicia Peters, stated that their institution is ready to give an extra N$2.5 million in this financial year, particularly on upscaling previously awarded projects focused on food security.

"Because we can't just have students with their master's degrees and their PhDs and fancy papers in articles and journals that we hardly even read. We want to see tangible outputs. We want to see equipment coming from there. We want to see testing on the ground, and therefore that amount has been earmarked for precisely doing that."

NCRST Board Chairperson Professor Jacob Nyambe adds, "What we intend to establish here is a National Science, Technology and Innovation Park that functions in practice as a community-facing hub. Its work will rest on four legs: science education and teacher support; applied agricultural research suited to flood-recession and rain-fed farming through the tertiary institutions; and support to innovators who have an idea but no laboratory, no workshop and no route to market."

Zambezi regional governor Dorothy Kabula hoped that the park would address challenges associated with the region's water resources, particularly the harvesting of floodwater that often results in disasters.

Meanwhile, the Mafwe Traditional Authority urged stakeholders to ensure that construction of the park begins and progresses in a timely manner to avoid unnecessary delays in the development of the facility.