Agricultural leaders should think beyond their industries and collaborate more widely to drive impactful partnerships and research. By focusing on collective action and shared priorities, we can achieve greater progress for the sector and the country as a whole. This is according to Dr Litha Magingxa, president and CEO of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC).
In an exclusive interview with Food For Mzansi, Magingxa, delved into the current state of agricultural research in South Africa, reflecting on the challenges and triumphs of the sector in 2024, highlighting the ARC’s role in driving innovation and productivity.
From the organisation’s impactful partnerships and pioneering research in cultivars and animal health to the exciting future of agri-tech, Magingxa shares his vision for a resilient, science-driven agricultural industry.
Duncan Masiwa: How did agricultural research progress under your watch in 2024?
Litha Magingxa: It’s been a tough year and I think for everyone, particularly in the space that we are in. Industries will have experienced the year with different levels of fortunes. But, we are fortunate that there is a lot of resilience and stability in the sector.
I am happy that the sentiment, even though perhaps at a particular point in the year, dipped, but I think we are picking up a lot of positivity.
We may have experienced late summer rains, but I think we are on track. I think the good thing is that from a food security perspective, the country is food secure at the sovereign level. Of course, we are still experiencing very significant challenges when it comes to household level.
And that is where institutions like ours come in, issues of productivity are at the core of the work that we do. You see, if you look at the rest of the world today, agricultural growth in production is largely led by productivity.
In other words, there are efficiency gains that are being experienced. Whereas, if you look at sub-Saharan Africa, a big part of the growth that we are experiencing here is on expansion in the production area. Meaning, for a science organisation like ours, the door is wide open to come up with research and produce technologies that are going to help us to be more efficient, to be able to produce more with less. That is the most basic definition of productivity – more with less.
What sparked joy at the ARC this year?
As an organisation that was founded just over 30 years ago, we are at that stage where we are starting to look back at the impact that we have made as an organisation.
And we are beginning to pinpoint a few of those significant achievements that we have secured as an organisation. The cornerstone of the work that we do is through partnerships with industry players. And we have rolled out a few of those.
We were just looking at the last five years and the number of cultivars that we have actually registered as the ARC. And we are talking about close to 30 or so cultivars that we have registered.
It is no easy process because it takes years of investment. As we always say in the research space, it not only takes years of investment but takes years of uninterrupted investment. So you can’t press pause on some of the work that an institution like ours does.
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But we are also looking at, you know, other technologies that we have produced. If you look at the animal science, and animal health space, we’re looking at the number of vaccines that we have produced, which we have handed over to the Onderstepoort Biological Products that we work very closely with. More recently, we’ve just registered two hemp cultivars as the ARC. And those are South African cultivars for the very first time.
There are a number of things that when we look back, we are actually very proud of the work that our people, our scientists are doing. And they continue to make us really proud.
What’s firing you up about agritech’s future?
The direction that agriculture is taking is very exciting. All of us working in this space are beginning to embrace technology. I’m excited because one of the priorities that have been mentioned as one of the minister’s set of priorities, talks about opening up and making the legislation and the regulatory environment more agile and to be in touch with the developments globally.
Most of the time regulation and legislation are always a few steps behind technological development and always have to catch up. And one of the most central conversations today is actually around GMO and gene editing and what those things mean for all of us.
Now, if you don’t have an environment that allows us to be able, as a country and as a sector, to be able to keep up with the rest of the world and not be left behind, then we are going to miss out.
I’m also very pleased with the work that we are doing now with the Technology Innovation Agency on low-chill apples, specifically, because that is a huge programme.
Promising technologies, like the R100 million low-chill apple project with the Technology Innovation Agency, are expanding production areas beyond the Western Cape. Looking back, science has already made a significant impact, boosting maize yields from one ton per hectare to five or six, with irrigated areas reaching up to 12 or 14 tons. This highlights the importance of continued investment in agricultural innovation.
The project is estimated currently around R100 million, and it’s going to take low-chill apples to other areas of the country, not just in the Western Cape. In other words, we are expanding the production areas.
How can agricultural leaders level up even more?
We have to think innovatively about partnerships because we are already driving some very impactful partnerships. But I think there is a whole lot of room for us to find other impactful initiatives together. The conference that we had earlier this year actually gave us a little bit of space to start that conversation.
Where it’s going to mature is where we talk about agricultural research as a collective. Right now we have bilateral arrangements with all the industries in South Africa – almost all. We work together, we co-develop priorities together, and we fund the research together.
But when we start talking about, let’s lift it outside of industry level, let’s talk about where should the country be going when it comes to agricultural research and where should we be investing in terms of research.
There are a number of areas where we could actually benefit from supporting these things together, even from different industries. And if we lift the conversation to be a South African conversation rather than a you and I conversation, there is a lot we can do.
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