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Grain SA is an organisation created by farmers for farmers to be the voice and support for farming communities. The aim of the organisation is to enable farmers to be profitable and sustainable. Grain SA achieves this through its various departments: Applied Economics, Phahama Grain Phakhama (farmer development), Marketing and Communication, and Research. The golden thread between these different departments is technology transfer and information sharing. The aim is to communicate accurate, impactful, timely, and accessible information that will enable farmers to make informed decisions. Data is the new gold, and how we collect and process it will determine its usability by the farming community.
The Research Department plays a crucial role in supporting the farming community by conducting innovative, applied, and forward-looking research in collaboration with the government, industry, and experts from various research institutions. Research data is collected in different disciplines called consortia, such as Climate Resilience, Crop Improvement, Plant Health and National Cultivar Trials Consortia. Furthermore, research coordinates the Human Capital Development Consortium that aims at supporting and enriching locally research capacity. The research coordinated by Grain SA is driven by the identified needs of producers, industry and the government to ensure the attainment of national food security.
Thus, the vision and mission of the Research as all Departments of Grain South Africa is improving sustainability and profitability of South African grain and oilseed producers. The Team can achieve that through facilitating and coordinating grain and oilseed research and policy matters by:
Crop improvement, involves plant breeding practices of purposeful selection, growth, and cross-pollination of crops with the aim of releasing new and improved material that will increase the productivity of producers.
A consortium has been established under the theme Crop Protection, with a special reference to soil-borne pathogens. The focus here is the monitoring of disease incidence and the build-up of soil-borne pathogens inoculum.
In South Africa, crop production systems based on intensive and continuous soil tillage have led to excessively high soil degradation rates. This adds to the growing problems with profitability and poverty in some of the rural areas.
The purpose of production research is to gather information on the content of production related issues. The methods of production research could be primary research; this means researching via books and setting up focus groups to gather people’s opinions.
Acts, Bills and Policies that have an effect on grain producers will be shared as they get passed.
In the newly established consortium, Climate Change, the focus is to bring together national, regional and international experts that can add value to the many challenges climate change is posing.
Get in touch with our Grain Research and Policy Centre