Yearbooks

Programme: BComHons Agricultural Economics

Kindly take note of the disclaimer regarding qualifications and degree names.
Code Faculty
07240090 Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences
Credits Duration
Duration of study: 1 year Total credits: 135
Contact:
Prof JF Kirsten
[email protected]
+27 (0)823723131

Admission requirements

Relevant BCom degree with at least 60% for Economics and Agricultural Economics on 3rd year level and Statistics on 2nd year level.

In addition to these requirements prospective students will have to complete a placement examination before registration to assess students’ knowledge of statistics, economics and agricultural economics.

 

 

Additional requirements

  1. Registration for a second field of study

With reference to General Regulation G.6, a student who has already completed a bachelor of honours degree at this or another university, may, with the permission of the Dean, register for another degree, subject to the regulations applicable to the field of study in question and to any other stipulations the Dean may prescribe on the condition that there shall be no overlap in the course content of the first degree and the second degree. Such a concession may be withdrawn by the Dean/Deans if the student does not perform satisfactorily.

  1. Acknowledgement of modules
  1. Subject to the stipulations of G.22.1, G.23.2 and the Joint Statute, a Dean may acknowledge modules passed at another tertiary institution or at this University in a department other than that in which the honours study is undertaken for the honours degree – provided that at least half of the required modules for the degree in question are attended and passed at this university.
  2. If there is overlap in the course content of the degree for which the student wishes to enrol or is enrolled and a degree already conferred, the Dean may not acknowledge any modules that form part of the degree already conferred.

Other programme-specific information

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 11.

Examinations and pass requirements

In calculating marks, General Regulation G12.2 applies.
Subject to the provisions of General Regulation G.26, a head of a department determines, in consultation with the Dean

  • when the honours examinations in his/her department will take place, provided that:
  1. honours examinations which do not take place before the end of the academic  year, must take place no later than 18 January of the following year, and all examination results must be submitted to the Student Administration by 25 January; and
  2. honours examinations which do not take place before the end of the first semester, may take place no later than 15 July, and all examination results must be submitted to the Student Administration on or before 18 July.
  • whether a candidate will be admitted to a supplementary examination, provided that a supplementary examination is granted, only once in a maximum of two prescribed semester modules or once in one year module;
  • supplementary examinations (if granted) cover the same subject matter as was the case for the examinations;
  • NB: For the purpose of this provision, the phrase "not sit for an examination more than twice in the same subject" as it appears in General Regulation G.18.2, implies that a candidate may not be admitted to an examination in a module, including a supplementary examination, more than three times.
  • the manner in which research reports are prepared and examined in his department.

NB: Full details are published in each department's postgraduate information brochure, which is available from the head of department concerned. The minimum pass mark for a research report is 50%. The provisions regarding pass requirements for dissertations contained in General Regulation G.12.2 apply mutatis mutandis to research reports.

Subject to the provisions of General Regulation G.12.2.1.3, the subminimum required in subdivisions of modules is published in the study guides, which is available from the head of department concerned.

Minimum credits: 120

Core modules

  • Module content:

    Agricultural marketing. The nature, development and conceptualisation of marketing and marketing study; the marketing environment, nationally and internationally; the functional and institutional approaches to marketing study; price discovery and margins; dynamics of agricultural and food marketing channels; competition and concentration on horizontal and vertical level; conflict and power relationships in agricultural marketing; economics of food consumption, consumer behaviour and consumer action; food market segmentation; food quality and branding, price, product, promotional and distributional policy; marketing analysis and planning. Global food marketing issues, contracting and changing global food retail patterns.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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Elective modules

  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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)

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  • 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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The information published here is subject to change and may be amended after the publication of this information. The General Regulations (G Regulations) apply to all faculties of the University of Pretoria. It is expected of students to familiarise themselves well with these regulations as well as with the information contained in the General Rules section. Ignorance concerning these regulations and rules will not be accepted as an excuse for any transgression.

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