Pretoria - With South Africa's population estimated to reach 82 million by 2035, prioritising the challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector will be key to continuing the sector's upward trajectory.
It is for this reason that the Human Sciences Research Council has officially started South Africa's Agricultural Business Innovation Survey for the period between 2019 to 2021.
The survey, conducted by the council’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation for the second time in the country, will see fieldworkers reaching out to commercial farming, forestry and fisheries businesses in the coming months.
According to the council, the survey will be covering a three-year period, taking stock of activity in a stratified random sample of 1 700 large, medium and small or micro-enterprises.
The project aims to monitor innovation performance in the agricultural sector, using an internationally comparable methodology to generate statistics.
Information about each business’s innovations, which may include new products, new processes, as well as improvements to existing products or ways of working, will be collected by the council’s fieldworkers who will contact businesses to either complete questionnaires online or via telephonic interviews.
According to the head of the centre, Dr Glenda Kruss, global challenges of climate change, and pandemics like Covid-19, had reinforced the importance of innovation, with countries best placed to solve wide-ranging social and economic challenges when innovative products and processes were adopted, alongside building technological capacity.
“The performance of South Africa’s agricultural sector, as a source of food security, job creation and the sustainable use of natural resources is critical for South Africa’s growth and development, to address goals of sustainability and inclusion.”
Kruss said the survey results would be analysed throughout the current financial year as well as in 2023, with the outcomes published next year.
Pretoria News