Agricultural Economic Services

The economic security of the Western Cape agricultural sector is something that cannot be taken for granted, but which must be nurtured and cultivated. In the extremely competitive global environment characterised by fast-changing consumer preferences and the market environment, the services of this programme provide a buttress for this security. The services are provided through units i.e. Marketing and Agribusiness, Production Economics, Statistics, Macro and Resource Economics and Agri-processing Support.

Agri-processing Support
Agri-processing is emerging as an important sub-sector with potential to spur economic growth and create jobs.

Macro and Resource Economics
Trends and data are not enough to ensure sound decisions, but it is needed to distil the truly crucial variables and to evaluate the impact of these on the agricultural economy of the Western Cape.

Marketing and AgriBusiness Support
Access to markets and information, fair participation, retaining and repositioning into sustainable markets are some of the critical concerns that this division aims to address.

Production Economic Support
With the change of the nature of competitiveness from land labour and capital to information and knowledge, the root of global agricultural competitiveness is embodied in farming systems and farm management practices.

Statistics
In order to monitor trends and to make good decisions at all levels of responsibility (both within and outside the department) good and reliable data or statistics is critical.