South Africa: Coping with Structural Changes

Introduction Analyzing the evolution of agricultural research and development policy in South Africa is a fascinating but difficult task, primarily because of the large number of structural, institutional, and political changes that took place during the 20th century. This chapter tracks the history of South Africa's agricultural research and development system against this background, highlighting changes over the past 20 years. Such changes have enabled better documentation of public spending on R&D and assessments of changes in the methods by which those funds are disbursed. Public-sector financing remains the dominant source of funding, but, as in so many countries, public funding has come under severe pressure in recent years. In recent years, contributions by producer organizations and international donors to the funding of agricultural research have increased, and universities play a much greater role as research providers. Declining core government funding and changes in leadership and management styles have driven large numbers of the most highly qualified researchers out of South Africa's primary research provider—the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). The prospect of the demise of the agricultural research system led to an initiative to coordinate the funding and provision of agricultural research in South Africa through a National Agricultural Research Forum (NARF). 1 This chapter presents South Africa's agricultural research and development policy within this historical framework. In the next section we provide a brief overview of the agricultural sector and a review of policy changes with a view to highlighting