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Despite young black professionals saying they have little interest in agriculture and farming, Stellenbosch University figures show a significant uptick in applications to its Faculty of AgriSciences in the past four years.
And the number of black students is growing each year.
The faculty received 1 325 applications for its six programmes in 2011, and 280 of them were accepted, 39 of them from black people. This year, there were 2 261 applications and 384 students got in, of whom 109 were black.
The undergraduate intake at the faculty, which is ranked the best in Africa, has grown 27% since 2011 – and the number of applications has increased by 41%.
However, as students can apply for up to three programmes – from first to third choice – there is significant duplication in the number of applications.
Faculty manager Dr Michael-John Freeborough explained some of the reasons behind the upswing.
“Key global factors, such as food security, sustainable development and climate change, are providing new challenges in the field of agricultural science,” he said.
“This is even more pertinent on the African continent in relation to the aims of the National Development Plan, which includes rural development, job creation, food security and land reform.”
Freeborough added that the popularity of the various programmes had changed over the past decade – in step with economic cycles in the agricultural sector that reflected the interests of the day.
“At various times over the past 10 years, the programmes in wine sciences, conservation ecology and, recently, food science and animal science, have been very popular,” he noted.
Now the faculty is limiting access to these programmes and is focused instead on areas where trained graduates are in short supply.
These include crop and soil science, breeding and water management and forest and wood science.
The university is determined to attract more black students.
“Agriculture often carries a negative sentiment within many previously disadvantaged communities and therefore struggles to attract a significant number of black, coloured and Indian students,” added Freeborough.
The faculty now has a programme that aims to change such perceptions.
