A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system
Increasing capabilities are required to develop solutions to wicked problems whilst the economic, environmental, and social contexts of farming have become more turbulent. There is a growing focus on developing systemic capabilities that enable the identification, development, and scaling of shared...
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Academy of Science of South Africa
2025-08-01
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| Series: | South African Journal of Science |
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| Online Access: | https://sajs.co.za/article/view/18996 |
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| author | Tim Fry Aldo Stroebel Sarah Cardey |
| author_facet | Tim Fry Aldo Stroebel Sarah Cardey |
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Increasing capabilities are required to develop solutions to wicked problems whilst the economic, environmental, and social contexts of farming have become more turbulent. There is a growing focus on developing systemic capabilities that enable the identification, development, and scaling of shared solutions. This requires a cohesive agricultural education and training (AET) system that identifies needs of entire food systems and delivers responsive pedagogies that combine learning sources. However, South Africa’s AET system remains in dire need of governance reform directed towards greater integration. This study investigates the performance of the AET system in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, utilising an agricultural innovation system (AIS) lens to identify where there are absent or poor-quality infrastructures and interactions, and cognitive, regulatory, and normative institutions that hinder AET-system performance. Evaluations of AET-supportive innovation structures were coupled with articulations of innovation functions that support transdisciplinary demand articulation, knowledge co-development, and networking. Results highlight an absence of communication and coordination mechanisms, hindering vertical and horizontal interactions between multi-actor groups. This absence contributes to a disenabling environment for AET-supportive networking, facilitation, and brokerage, leading to missed opportunities to facilitate between food system actors and AET providers to develop transdisciplinary research and pedagogies that harness diverse knowledge, resources, and networks to maximise impact. Whilst there are industry-led needs assessment structures, these operate in silos and lack public sector engagement that could enable organisations with complementary mandates, knowledge, and infrastructures to respond to common priorities.
Significance:
This paper advances scholarly interests in South African agriculture by applying an AIS-diagnostic lens to evaluate Mpumalanga’s AET system to identify systemic blockages that hinder multi-actor collaboration within Mpumalanga’s citrus and maize subsystems. This research goes beyond previous studies that focus on local-level agriculture, the influence of extension officers, or commodity-specific insights. Further, most agricultural studies in Mpumalanga focus on linear-modelled developmental pathways, whilst this study extends research by evaluating how multi-actor access and capabilities influence outcomes and the development of disenabling or enabling environments for AET in Mpumalanga.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-988e8906311340bbbc0226f09b4f6b11 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1996-7489 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Academy of Science of South Africa |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South African Journal of Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-988e8906311340bbbc0226f09b4f6b112025-08-20T03:40:41ZengAcademy of Science of South AfricaSouth African Journal of Science1996-74892025-08-011217/810.17159/sajs.2025/18996A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training systemTim Fry0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4911-3386Aldo Stroebel1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7395-5911Sarah Cardey2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8504-8027School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, United KingdomResearch, Innovation and Internationalisation Office, University of Mpumalanga, Mbombela, South AfricaSchool of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Increasing capabilities are required to develop solutions to wicked problems whilst the economic, environmental, and social contexts of farming have become more turbulent. There is a growing focus on developing systemic capabilities that enable the identification, development, and scaling of shared solutions. This requires a cohesive agricultural education and training (AET) system that identifies needs of entire food systems and delivers responsive pedagogies that combine learning sources. However, South Africa’s AET system remains in dire need of governance reform directed towards greater integration. This study investigates the performance of the AET system in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, utilising an agricultural innovation system (AIS) lens to identify where there are absent or poor-quality infrastructures and interactions, and cognitive, regulatory, and normative institutions that hinder AET-system performance. Evaluations of AET-supportive innovation structures were coupled with articulations of innovation functions that support transdisciplinary demand articulation, knowledge co-development, and networking. Results highlight an absence of communication and coordination mechanisms, hindering vertical and horizontal interactions between multi-actor groups. This absence contributes to a disenabling environment for AET-supportive networking, facilitation, and brokerage, leading to missed opportunities to facilitate between food system actors and AET providers to develop transdisciplinary research and pedagogies that harness diverse knowledge, resources, and networks to maximise impact. Whilst there are industry-led needs assessment structures, these operate in silos and lack public sector engagement that could enable organisations with complementary mandates, knowledge, and infrastructures to respond to common priorities. Significance: This paper advances scholarly interests in South African agriculture by applying an AIS-diagnostic lens to evaluate Mpumalanga’s AET system to identify systemic blockages that hinder multi-actor collaboration within Mpumalanga’s citrus and maize subsystems. This research goes beyond previous studies that focus on local-level agriculture, the influence of extension officers, or commodity-specific insights. Further, most agricultural studies in Mpumalanga focus on linear-modelled developmental pathways, whilst this study extends research by evaluating how multi-actor access and capabilities influence outcomes and the development of disenabling or enabling environments for AET in Mpumalanga. https://sajs.co.za/article/view/18996Agricultural Innovation System (AIS)Agricultural Education and Training (AET)structural–functionalagricultural innovationtransdisciplinary curricula |
| spellingShingle | Tim Fry Aldo Stroebel Sarah Cardey A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system South African Journal of Science Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) Agricultural Education and Training (AET) structural–functional agricultural innovation transdisciplinary curricula |
| title | A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system |
| title_full | A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system |
| title_fullStr | A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system |
| title_full_unstemmed | A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system |
| title_short | A structural–functional diagnostic of Mpumalanga’s agricultural education and training system |
| title_sort | structural functional diagnostic of mpumalanga s agricultural education and training system |
| topic | Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) Agricultural Education and Training (AET) structural–functional agricultural innovation transdisciplinary curricula |
| url | https://sajs.co.za/article/view/18996 |
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