Code | Faculty | Department |
---|---|---|
07240091 | Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences | Department: Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development |
Credits | Duration | NQF level |
---|---|---|
Minimum duration of study: 1 year | Total credits: 120 | NQF level: 08 |
Students intending to continue with the MCom degree in Agricultural Economics are advised to choose their elective modules from MIE 780, EKT 713, EKT 723 and LEK 711.
Subject to the provisions of General Academic Regulation G26, a head of department determines, in consultation with the Dean when the honours examinations in his/her department will take place, provided that:
The head of the department determines:
Supplementary examinations (if granted) cover the same subject matter as was the case for the examinations.
A student may not enrol for the same module more than once, unless the dean has approved a second enrolment based on an application supported by a valid reason or motivation. Also refer to General Academic Regulation G18.3.
NB: Full details are published in each department's postgraduate information brochure, which is available from the relevant head of department. The minimum pass mark for a research report is 50%.
Subject to the provisions of G26, the subminimum required in subdivisions of modules is published in the study guides, which are available from the relevant head of department.
Minimum credits: 120
Credits to the amount of 120 must be obtained - 105 from core modules and 15 from elective modules.
Module content:
Introduction the food system, food system dynamics, marketing and the food value chain, global food marketing trends, marketing strategies and plans, consumer behaviour & marketing research, collecting information, forecasting demand, conducting market research, consumer research tools, marketing of agricultural products, risk in agricultural commodity marketing, connecting with customers, building strong brands, creating value, food franchising. food quality, labelling & food safety, intellectual property and geographical indicators, delivering value, supply chain management, contract growing, conducting marketing responsibility for long-term success, communicating value. Marketing in the 21st century. Case study analysis, industry case study.
Module content:
Strategic management in agriculture. Dynamics of agricultural management. Entrepreneurship. Environmental scanning. Productivity measurement and improvement thereof by the organisation of manpower, capital and financial sources. Business growth. Formulation and implementation of competitive strategy. Corporate governance, strategic analysis and strategic choice, strategy implementation, balanced scorecard.
Module content:
Agricultural finance. Economic theory underlying agricultural finance and agricultural finance institutions. Supply and demand of agricultural financial services. Servicing the farm and the agricultural business firm. Agricultural finance within the broader financial market in South and Southern Africa. Risk assessment and management. Risk in agricultural finance and mitigation strategies.
Module content:
In this module students have to select a specific agribusiness and analyse one key dimension of this business. This dimension could be: marketing programme, supply chain management, strategic plan, market analyses, etc. This component of the course should serve as an opportunity for students to identify prevalent problems in an agribusiness and to devise appropriate solutions. This module should have a practical onslaught with a case study approach. It is envisaged that the student will have to work in close cooperation with companies and professionals in the industry, with the written report as the final deliverable of the the case study.
Module content:
WTO/GATT-1994 and agricultural related Agreements and Understandings. Regionalism and trade blocks. International trade and economic development. South Africa's agricultural trade policy. Involvement in bilateral and plurilateral agreements. Application of international market analysis tools. International trade and tariff statistics, trade modelling, theory and familiarity in international and regional databases. The module covers the basic tools to understand what determines the flow of goods across countries, i.e. international trade, and applications to a number of topics of current interest, including the debate on globalisation, free trade agreements, the SA Current account and the medium run prospects for exchange rates.
Module content:
Agricultural supply chain analysis. Explore the evolution of supply chain management in the global food industry. Establish the different ways in which supply chain management can provide a source of competitive advantage at industry level and for individual firms. Examine the crossfunctional and multidisciplinary nature of supply chain management as it applies in the global food industry. Introduce the core elements of the theoretical literature on supply chain management and consider applications in different sectors. Provide students with practical experience in applying the principles of supply chain management to the exploitation of a marketing opportunity, using case examples from the fresh produce and meat sectors. Provide students with practical experience of undertaking a supply chain audit, with a view to establishing an appropriate business strategy for a food manufacturing company.
Module content:
An introductory yet comprehensive course in econometrics, encompassing an in-depth examination of elementary statistics and regression analysis. This includes the fundamentals of simple and multiple regression analyses, as well as estimation, inference and hypothesis testing. Considerable attention is devoted to practical applications on current economic issues and examples drawn from the applied economic literature.
Module content:
An advanced course in econometrics that goes beyond elementary statistics and regression analysis. This includes in-depth analyses of the theory and application of stationarity, unit roots and co-integration in single equations. In addition to this, the concepts of qualitative analysis, cross-sectional modelling and simultaneous-equation modelling are dealt with.
Module content:
Advanced production economics
(a) Primal approach: Structure of the production technology and properties, elasticity of substitution, homogeneity and returns to scale, separability, estimation of technology parameters and testing hypothesis about properties, functional forms.
(b) Normative supply analysis: Applications of linear programming to farm supply decisions.
(c) Dual approach: The profit function, the cost function, duality and technology structure, estimation and hypothesis testing.
(d) Positive supply analysis: Econometric specification of output supply and factor demand, restrictions from technology structure (homogeneity, etc.), aggregate supply analysis.
(e) Risk and uncertainty: Mean-variance analysis applications in agricultural production, stochastic dominance; MOTAD and quadratic programming.
Module content:
Advanced rural finance. Economic theory underlying rural financial markets and institutions. Economic growth and financial services. Supply and demand of financial services in rural areas. Rural financial institutions and application to South and Southern Africa.
Module content:
a) Project planning and priority setting (project concept to rural socioeconomic development, logical framework analysis, research priority setting methods, strategic planning, scenario planning).
b) Economic analysis of agricultural development projects through CBA (decision making in public and private sectors, financial, social and economic considerations; identification of Cs and Bs, valuation of Cs and Bs; project assessment criteria.
c) Monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment (process and program monitoring, MandE systems; causality, incrementality and the attribution problem; impacts assessment methodology.
d) Project management (scheduling, techniques for management, managing risk and uncertainty, monitoring performance
e) Welfare economics and political economy considerations (Pareto optimality, compensation tests, efficiency and distribution, politics of CBA, development projects vs. development policies, first vs. second best shadow prices, market failure)
Module content:
The core concepts of microeconomic theory will be the focus of the module, including: demand and supply, consumer theory, firm theory, markets and market structure, general equilibrium, information economics and behavioural economics. Applications of this theory will feature prominently.
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