Description:
This data set contains the aggregated data on Agriculture R&D and other S&T indicators by province as well as by government, higher education, not-for-profit organisations and science councils.
Abstract:
The National Survey on R&D and other S&T related activities in Agriculture in South Africa collected data from public institutions under strict confidentiality. Aggregate data were used primarily to inform policy and strategic planning at a national level.
Primary data was primarily collected from public agricultural institutions. The survey was limited to agriculture as a key subsector of the greater economic sector that includes forestry and fisheries. The following institutions were surveyed:
Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF);
provincial agricultural departments;
science councils;
higher education institutions;
non-profit institutions.
Some general organisational information was collected. The survey however focused on Human Resources and Financial data relating to in-house R&D as well as other S&T related activities conducted on the national territory of South Africa.
In-house R&D personnel categories included:
researchers;
technicians directly supporting R&D;
other personnel directly supporting R&D;
qualifications, gender and race;
full-time-equivalents (FTE) on R&D.
In-house R&D expenditure categories included:
capital expenditure, labour costs and other current expenditure;
type of R&D (basic research, strategic basic research, applied research, and experimental development);
provincial location;
sources of funds;
research fields (fields of science).
The key users of the data and findings include government departments, especially Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF) and the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI)
Ad hoc requests for data are also accommodated and inform academic papers, reports and other outputs.
Face-to-face interview
The National R&D Agriculture 2010-11 Survey collected primary data from five survey sectors:
DAFF
Government (GOV): Provincial agricultural departments
Higher education institutions (HEI)
Not-for-profit (NPO): Non-governmental and other organisations formally registered as not-for-profit institutions
Science councils (SCI): the eight science research councils, plus the Africa Institute of South Africa, as established through their individual Acts of Parliament
The sampling methods of the various sectors are briefly outlined below:
Government Sector: was surveyed using a census approach. All national and provincial government departments, research institutions and museums performing agricultural R&D and Science and technology were included.
Higher Education Sector: institutions, namely universities and universities of technology were included through a census survey.
Not-for-Profit Organisations (NPO) Sector: a purposive sampling procedure was employed whereby all known and likely R&D agricultural and Science and Technology performers were targeted.
Science Councils Sector: were surveyed using a census approach.
Response rate = 100 x [Responses/(Responses + Non-responses â Out-of-scopes)], where non-responses include refusals and out-of-scopes include closed down, non-agriculture R&D performer, return to sender, untraceable, etc.
Government sector response rate = 100 x [6/(6 + 2 - 1)] = 85.7%
Science Councils sector response rate = 100 x [8/(8 + 0 - 0)] = 100.0%
Higher Education sector response rate = 100 x [21/(21 + 6 - 4)] = 91.3%
Other sector response rate = 100 x [2/(2 + 4 - 4)] = 100.0%
Overall survey response rate = 100 x [37/(37 + 12 - 9)] = 92.5%
