Data sources

Primary data were collected through four consecutive institutional survey rounds in 1984, 1993-94 (both under ISNAR’s “Indicators Series Project”), 2003-04, and 2008-09 (both under the ASTI initiative). These data were combined with a number of secondary data sources:

ARC (Agricultural Research Council). 2010. ARC .Financial database. Pretoria.

CeSTII (Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators). 2008. South African national survey of research & experimental development, 2007/08. Unpublished surveys. Pretoria.

DEAT (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism). 2010. Annual report 2009/10. Pretoria.

DoA (Department of Agriculture). 2009. Investigation report on the status of provincial research centers. Draft report. Pretoria.

NMMU (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University). 2010. Department of Agriculture and Game Management. http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=338&bhcp=1. Accessed June 2010.

NWU (North-West University). 2010. Faculty of Agriculture, Science & Technology: School of Agricultural Sciences. http://www.uniwest.ac.za/faculties/ast/index.html. Accessed June 2010.

RSA (Republic of South Africa). 2010. Estimates of national expenditure. Pretoria: Department of Finance.

UFS (University of the Free State). 2010. Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences: Report 2008. Bloemfontein. http://natagri.ufs.ac.za/dl/user.les/Documents/00000/120_eng.pdf. Accessed December 2010.

UL (University of Limpopo). 2010. Faculty of Science and Agriculture. http://www.ul.ac.za/index.php?Entity=Faculty%20of%20Science%20and%20Agriculture. Accessed December 2010.

UNISA (University of South Africa). 2010. College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=19413. Accessed June 2010.

Univen (University of Venda). 2010. School of Agriculture. http://www.univen.ac.za/index.php. Accessed December 2010.

Unizulu (University of Zululand). 2010. Faculty of Science and Agriculture. http://www.uzulu.ac.za/ Accessed December 6, 2010.

UP (University of Pretoria). 2010. Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Yearbook 2008. http://web.up.ac.za/site.les/File/yearbook_2008/Natural_and_Agricult_Undergrad_2008.pdf Accessed December 6, 2010.

For additional secondary sources that were used to construct the pre-1991 data series, see appendices and reference lists in Roseboom, Pardey, Sartorius von Bach and Zyl (1995) Download PDF and Liebenberg, Beintema, and Kristen (2004) Download PDF.

Estimation procedures

  • For a number of agencies, research staff and expenditure data were missing for certain years. These have been interpolated or in a few cases extrapolated.
  • Expenditures for the higher-education agencies are estimates based on the average expenditures per researcher for the government agencies.
  • Salaries and living expenses of many expatriate researchers working on donor-supported projects at the (often main) agricultural research agencies are paid directly by their respective agency. The average implicit costs of expatriate R&D staff were calculated in the early 1990s (see Appendix 2 in Roseboom, Pardey, Sartorius von Bach and Zyl 1995), and have been extrapolated to more recent years using salary averages of a few CGIAR centers.

For general ASTI data procedures and methodology, please visit www.asti.cgiar.org/methodology