Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Management

Purpose

Two purposes will be achieved in the Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Management. Firstly, and in line with the official qualification descriptor this qualification will still provide a continuing professional development by enhancing a deeper and more systematic understanding of current thinking and current practices as well as an understanding of theory and methodology in a number of areas related to agriculture. Graduates will focus more on areas at the forefront of industrial development and become competent in new ways to exploit bodies of data for purposes of application.

Learners will in this qualification reach a point where they will be able to perform reflective thinking, make systematic surveys of current practices and bodies of knowledge and in the process achieve theoretical independence. The qualifying learner will have exposure and orientation to various agricultural systems and will be competent to manage and apply knowledge, skills and attitudes towards agricultural production at a higher level than was the case with the Advanced Diploma.

Secondly the learners will also be prepared for postgraduate study at the Master's level by the development of their ability to formulate, undertake and resolve more complex theoretical and practice-related problems and tasks through the selection and use of appropriate methods and techniques. The notion of systems thinking is now also given prominence.

Rationale

The production environment in South Africa is in many cases marginal which makes the production of agricultural commodities challenging. Because of shrinking profit margins there is a strong tendency where farmers increasingly participate in the value chain. Bearing this in mind, a module in Value Adding and Agro processing was included.

The following will shed light on the Agricultural production environment

• Only 12% of the surface area of South Africa is suitable for the production of rain-fed crops: As much as 91% of South Africa is defined as arid or semi-arid. For the country as a whole, on more than 50% of the surface area, the annual rainfall varies between 30% and 60%. Such conditions forbid reckless optimism in planning.
• Much of most of South Africa's grazing land (69% of surface), especially communal rangelands are stocked beyond its long-term carrying capacity. This practice causes irreversible damage to the quality of grazing provided. It also implies a looming crisis in the actual subsistence provided.
• The shortage of surplus water limits irrigation opportunities even as farmers will have to double their use of water by 2050 if they are to meet growing food demands using current farming practices. Of the irrigated land an estimated 260 000ha is affected by salinisation. This implies a need > Much land is utilised under subsistence management which means that no surpluses are generated for the food security of urban populations.
• The urban population number has since 1985 passed that of the rural population. It is expected that by 2020 about 70% of the population will be urban. This renders futile any expectation about subsistence farming as a national mode of existence.

Sophisticated farming practices have enabled large farming units to not only survive but to increase their profits and yields dramatically. However, the conditions for achieving such profits are also sophisticated and raised commanding barriers to entering the productive agricultural industry.

This Postgraduate Diploma qualification is a response to the need of higher levels of agriculture-associated occupations for the ability and agility for responding quicker to changes that may occur in any or all of the following market dimensions:

• Outlet Markets.
• Suppliers of Input Items and Services.
• Trading Practices.
• International Trade Agreements.
• Available Breeds and Cultivars.
• Production Practices.
• Management Practices.
• Local Climatic Patterns.
• Local Legislative Conditions.

Graduates are required who have received a broad-based training which improves their changes of performing well in the following career environments:

• Financing institutions.
• Governmental services to agriculture.
• Various levels of farming.
• Various levels of agribusiness.
• Providing a form of consulting service.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

The institution has embraced the "Access with success plan" as its commitment to realizing its endeavors of widening access of learners to higher education. Learners from the previously disadvantaged designated groups are targeted through the institutional recruitment strategies.

To facilitate and promote access to the qualification, learners will also be selected based on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Selection of such learners will be conducted on an individual basis in accordance with the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy of the institution.

The learners are required to complete an RPL application document. Accompanying the RPL application must be certified copies of all previous qualifications and a comprehensive portfolio of evidence, reflecting on extensive work learning.

RPL will be provided only for entrance requirements or for granting credits. It will not be provided for a stand-alone awarding of a qualification.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement for this qualification is

• Advanced Diploma in Agricultural Management, NQF Level 7, 120 Credits.
• Bachelor's Degree, NQF Level 7.

This qualification consists of the following compulsory and elective modules at National Qualifications Framework Level 8 totalling 120 Credits.

Compulsory Modules National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 8 ,100 Credits

• Value Adding in Agro-Processing, 20 Credits.
• Business Planning in Agriculture, 20 Credits.
• Applied Agricultural Research, 60 Credits.

Elective Modules NQF Level 8, 20 Credits (Choose one)

• Sustainable Plant Production Systems, 20 Credits.
• Sustainable Animal Production Systems, 20 Credits.

1. Compile a report on the opportunities for strategic repositioning of an agricultural business in a processing value chain.
2. Compile a comprehensive and detailed business plan for all aspects of a farming enterprise.
3. Compile a mini dissertation on an approved research problem of a quantitative nature.
4. Compile a report on how the sustainability of a plant production system in a specific region could be improved.
5. Compile a report on how the sustainability of an animal production system in a specific region could be improved.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Conduct a survey on technical nature of agro-processing in a selected number of sub-industries.
• Identify the ownership of infrastructure on which a selected agro-processing value chain is dependent.
• Analyse the input and output trading patterns that occur in a selected local agro-processing value chain.
• Compare the output and input trading inside a selected agro-processing value chain between two elected countries.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Describe the income streaming and the supportive technology of a farming enterprise.
• Describe the capital position of the enterprise and how debts will be served and additional investments be made.
• Describe the infrastructure and stock maintenance and renewal processes.
• Describe both the internal and external strategies for ensuring longer term sustainability.
• Describe the use of human resources in relation to key operational and strategic considerations.
• Compile a financial management plan for the enterprise.
• Compile a risk management strategy.
• Compile a separate roll-out plan for every aspect of the enterprise.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Explain the data support for a theory that is proposed to influence the decisions in a selected agricultural sub-industry.
• Explain a limited set of more advanced research techniques.
• Formulate a desktop research design that will deliver the required data for quantitative processing and interpretation.
• Execute a departmentally approved quantitative research project with implications for an agricultural sub-industry.
• Process, analyse and interpret the data meeting the protocols for the specific research project.
• Compile and present a report on research done according to the applicable criteria.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Explain the agro-ecological determinants of cropping systems.
• Survey existing sustainability practices for plant production practices in a specific region.
• Give an overview of the qualitative and quantitative methods for investigating and evaluating the sustainability of regional land use.
• Survey the main interactive components between crop farming systems and rural livelihoods in a given region.
• Analyse governmental policies that shape the environmental economics in agriculture.
• Identify a specific problem regarding the sustainability of plant production practices in a selected region.
• Investigate possible solution(s) to (a) non-sustainable plant production practice(s).

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 5

• Explain the agro-ecological determinants of animal farming systems.
• Survey existing sustainability practices for animal production practices in a specific region.
• Give an overview of the qualitative and quantitative methods for investigating and evaluating the sustainability of regional land use.
• Survey the main interactive components between animal farming systems and rural livelihoods in a given region.
• Analyse governmental policies that shape the environmental economics in agriculture.
• Identify a specific problem regarding the sustainability of animal production practices in a selected region.
• Investigate possible solution(s) to (a) non-sustainable animal production practice(s).

Integrated Assessment

Provision is made for integrated assessment in its entirety. The underpinning principle for the achievement of integrated assessment is ensuring that all work and assessments are directed at enabling learners to commence with situations and required decisions in an Agricultural environment. Both formative and summative forms of assessment practices are accommodated.

Furthermore, as the qualification is practice-oriented, the theory acquired is put into practice. This synergy between theory and practice are achieved via:

• Addressing a number of outcomes together.
• Clustering a number of assessment criteria together.
• Promoting and raising awareness of the connections and relationships between the knowledge, processes and skills inside the different modules.
• Using a combination of several different assessment methods, instruments and tools to achieve outcome(s).

Finally, work done in the module Applied Agricultural Research will specifically integrate all Exit Level Outcomes of the qualification.