Research, development and innovation key to food security

Investment in research, development and innovation is essential for South Africa’s economic recovery.

According to the new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Dr Litha Magingxa, targeted investments help enable the execution of policies formulated to address the social distress brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.

“The ARC makes a significant contribution through initiatives aimed at improved food and nutrition security in the country, including the recently signed Agriculture and Agroprocessing Master Plan, which will unlock growth and create efficiencies in the sector to support economic recovery,” he says.

As the country’s premier agricultural research organisation, the ARC’s role touches on some of the critical areas of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, such as strengthening agriculture and food security and green industrialisation.

Magingxa says that green industrialisation guarantees the security of energy, food, water and electricity supply.

“The ARC works closely with industry partners to develop technologies that improve yields and contribute to plant and animal health protection,” he says.

He adds that the national collections, such as insects, nematodes and fungi, in the ARC’s custody are used for research into creating crops that are more risk resistant.

“This [research] has positioned us well to contribute to the management of some significant pests and diseases, such as fall armyworm, and we continue to develop more technologies based on new scientific discoveries.”

Strong roots

Magingxa was appointed as president and CEO in April 2022, for a five-year term, and is well suited to the position.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare; a Master of Science from the former Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands and a PhD (Agricultural Economics) from the University of the Free State.

Magingxa was a Doctoral Research Fellow at the International Water Management Institute and boasts a wealth of experience in leadership from both the private and public sectors. Between 2009 and 2014, he served as Senior Manager for Strategy and Planning at the Land Bank. He also worked as a Group Executive for Agri-Economics and Capacity Development at the ARC between 2014 and 2018, and as Executive Manager for AgriEconomics and Advisory at the Land and Agricultural Development Bank between 2018 and March this year, before ascending to his current position.

Onwards and upwards

“My responsibility is to provide oversight and formulate an overall strategy and policy for a high-performing, professional and transformational organisation to drive its mission and achieve the organisational objectives within the respective fields of expertise,” he says.

“I am tasked with the redirection, revisioning and repositioning of the ARC, working with the council and management team.

“I am very fortunate as the ARC has just been presented with its latest institutional review report. The process is conducted every five years to assess the effectiveness of the organisation,” he adds.

The report makes recommendations about the quality of science, process efficiency and governance issues, among others. It informs the path for the organisation for the next five years and beyond, while also identifying other areas for improvement.

“We have started a process of

prioritising the recommendations from the report and integrating some of them into our processes. In the short term, we are focusing on launching several process efficiency initiatives. We are also introducing improvements in our research environment that will position us well in the medium to long term, to support the sector and to harness some emerging global opportunities,” he explains.

During the 2022/23 financial year, the ARC focused on a hard turnaround in a few areas, including the improvement of its audit outcomes. “We are making significant investments in technology, as well as process and governance improvements that will assist us in this endeavour.”

He says the ARC is looking at how to improve efficiencies in general and reposition itself to participate in addressing identified global challenges, such as climate change, while also focusing on an improved turnaround in technology transfer methodologies.

“We have recently approved a commercialisation strategy, which allows us more agility in working with market partners. Implementation modalities are being finalised. We will also be setting up a framework for the implementation of the initiatives identified in the institutional review [report],” he says.

One of the long-term challenges that Magingxa seeks to address is revenue pressure. He says the organisation is looking at how to dedicate capacity and focus to the area of resource mobilisation. He envisages that the commercialisation strategy will assist the ARC to realise better value from its intellectual property and its vast physical infrastructure.

Regardless of the challenges, Magingxa is proud of the ARC team, which he says comprises experts in their respective fields. This positions it well in becoming a valuable partner in knowledge generation partnerships.

Growing SA’s skills

Magingxa says the empowerment of youth, women and persons with disabilities is one of the ARC’s focus areas. The organisation’s flagship professional development programme has about 200 students enrolled for advanced scientific training through master’s and PhD programmes. In addition, the Bioinformatics and Statistical Genomics Training Programme targets students and young scientists.

Furthermore, Magingxa says the organisation collaborates with provincial departments of agriculture to extend access to farmer training initiatives to target designated groups.

“We constantly monitor the inclusiveness of our programmes to ensure access by designated groups. This approach also informs how we create development opportunities for staff from diverse groups,” he says.

Magingxa has spent time in the past months visiting various ARC campuses to directly interact with employees, and he believes that even in the face of challenges, the potential to make significant leaps remains.

“I believe that we need to do everything in our power to unleash this potential,” he says.