The Agricultural Research Council is a parastatal aimed at improving sustainable agricultural production in general.
As such, its services are open to everyone, irrespective of the size of a farming operation. Farmers and agricultural role-players, in other words, do not need to be members to gain access to the Agricultural Research Council services, but it helps to be part of a commodity organisation as many of their services are coordinated with other agricultural role-players.
Operations are largely government funded, although revenue is also earned through some of its activities, such as royalties on cultivars, book sales and the hosting of events.
South Africa’s agricultural sector is one of the world’s most diverse, consisting of corporate and private intensive and extensive crop ...