The Faculty of Natural Agricultural Sciences has announced the development of a 570ha integrated, agricultural, high-tech, sustainability-focused research, training, and skills development facility, to be known as FARM@UP.
It is designed to unlock the multidisciplinary future of agricultural research and development, and it is the first of its kind in Africa.
According to Professor Barend Erasmus, Dean of Natural Agricultural Sciences, FARM@UP will be established as an integrated, high-tech, sustainability-focused research, training, and skills development hub specifically for South Africa and the African region's conditions. It will strive for self-sustainability, leveraging UP’s deep disciplinary expertise to anchor two critical pillars of theoretical education and hands-on practical skills development.
It will be a working farm for the practical training of scholars, students, and industry practitioners. It will also be a facility for joint university-industry research at scale focusing on future-fit, climate-smart agricultural research, comprehensive training, and skills development. We are poised to shape the horizon of African agriculture.
Erasmus said, FARM@UP is an institutional partnership between academia and Industry, which relies on industry collaboration and partnerships for mutually beneficial and commercially viable endeavours.
A robust research agenda will be driven by industry and societal needs, with a view to longer-term partnerships for impact, from across the African continent. This approach is well-aligned with the UP’s drive towards increasing transdisciplinary and translational research.
In addition, FARM@UP will also be developed as a key point for partnering with various African and global partners to provide state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities (in Agricultural Sciences) for training researchers and stakeholders from southern Africa and Africa.
UP is proud and privileged to announce that several key industry leaders, namely Agri-Enviro Solutions, Automill, Bitek Industries, Bühler Southern Africa, Kemin, Ronin, and Waikato South Africa, have already committed to becoming partners in the FARM@UP development, which will be finalised with the signing of official agreements.