Good afternoon, good morning, or good evening, depending upon what time you’re tuning in.
My name is Lulama Ndibongo Traub and I am a lecturer in the
Department of Agricultural Economics.
What I want to do today is really make a pitch for why you as a potential student to the
university would want to consider a career in agricultural economics.
My argument is this career is far from basic.
What do I mean by basic? According to the urban dictionary,
basic is an adjective that describes something that is unexceptional or unoriginal.
What I’m proposing here is that if you should come to Stellenbosch University
to study agricultural economics, you’re opening yourself up to a career that is far from basic.
In fact, it’s an exceptional career choice.
Why do I say that? There are three reasons. The first is, with a degree in agricultural
economics you have the opportunity to make a difference on a global scale.
Number two, you enter a career that has a broad scope of work.
Finally, with a degree in agricultural economics you have the opportunity for working in one of the largest global industries,
the food industry.
I want to spend the rest of this time unpacking each of these reasons why I believe that a career
as an agricultural economist is far from basic. Starting with making a difference,
as an ag economist you enter into a career that gives you the opportunity
to make a difference in this world. What do I mean by this?
By 2050 we’re expecting that the global population is going to reach 10 billion people.
This is a challenge that the food industry faces.
As ag economists we’re asking ourselves the question today,
will the food industry be able to feed that 10 billion more people?
Why the question? Because we face four major challenges.
On the one hand we have malnutrition and hunger. We have pockets of places in the
world where hunger continues to persist and rise. On the other hand, though, we do have issues of
obesity and unhealthy diets which tend to lead to and create health issues for our population.
The third challenge that the food system faces is the high degree of food wastage.
This is linked to issues of logistics. How do we get the food off the farm and onto the consumer’s table?
The fourth challenge is this natural resource constraint. We all know here in South Africa we have faced
a series of extreme droughts and we expect that this is going to be a continued challenge for
the food system in the face of climate change.
Given these four reasons, then what I’d like to do is just take a moment and show you this video that was put out
by the UN where they unpack these four challenges. Let me play that for you.
Why do we need to change our food system?
Every day you have to eat, just like the other 7,2 billion people on the planet.
By 2050, at least 2 billion more people will join you. Will you be able to continue eating the same way?
Let’s take a look together at four examples of our food system’s limitations.
First limitation, one out of every three people suffer from malnutrition,
794 million people suffer from hunger, and 2 billion people
do not have sufficient access to vitamins and minerals necessary for growth and development.
On the other hand, 1,9 billion people overeat and 600 million of those people are obese.
Consequently, more people suffer from illnesses, such as Type 2 diabetes.
Second limitation, our food is too rich in fat, sugar, salt, and meat.
This type of diet has an impact on health and the environment. For example,
it can lead to increased heart disease and higher greenhouse gas emissions from meat production.
In addition, our food is less diverse. Seventy-five per cent of our food now
comes from only twelve plants, including rice, corn, and wheat, and from five animal species,
including cows, chickens, and pigs. Third limitation, one-third of food is wasted.
Out of all the food we produce, one-third is not consumed, but thrown away.
Fourth limitation, our natural resources are under pressure. Sources of fresh water are running dry and
existing water resources are becoming polluted. Thirty-three per cent of soils are degraded.
Our biodiversity is threatened with tropical forests disappearing and
many plants and animals endangered, such as bees. These problems are intensified by climate change.
Such limitations clearly show that our food system must be transformed. Each step of the food system,
production, processing, distribution, consumption, needs to be adjusted
to ensure healthier food to our growing population and to reduce its environmental impact.
But above all, it is necessary to bring all the stakeholders together,
government and health authorities, producers, consumers, business people, to break down the
silo thinking, examine all the points of view, and work together to define the actions necessary
to produce and eat food differently. For example, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and decrease levels of overconsumption. You too can participate in change.
Ask yourself about the food that you produce or eat. Eat a balanced diet and reduce your food waste.
If these challenges that we just saw in this video excite you, if you think
you’ve got innovative ideas that can address these challenges in a way that can transform the system,
then we would definitely welcome you to come and join us here at Stellenbosch University.
Just to do a quick recap then. Agricultural economics as a career is beyond basic.
First reason is that you have a career opportunity to make a difference at a global level.
The second reason is this idea that this field offers you a broad scope of work.
What do I mean about this? In terms of the agrifood systems,
there are many levels of activity that occur along the value chain, which this image depicts.
We have the input level of activities that involve production of things like seed,
fertiliser, and soil management, etc. You’ve also got your production level that involves
primary production, which is farming, basically. Then you’ve also got your consolidation level,
your processing level, all the way down to the consumer level of the value chain.
With a degree in agricultural economics, it opens up a career at any level of this value chain.
It really depends upon your emphasis or your interest. For instance,
if you come to Stellenbosch University and you study agricultural economics
with an emphasis in food sciences, it offers you an opportunity to work at the processing level
of the value chain. If instead you choose to emphasise on soil and plant breeding,
then you can work at the production level of the value chain. It really depends on you.
The second reason why I say this career offers you a broad scope of work is that this career
goes beyond your traditional office work.
This is a picture of a conference call that took place in 2020.
Here you see just a few of the 237 representatives from 37 countries
involved in a conversation on how to transform Africa’s food system.
The majority of the people pictured here are ag economists and some of them, in fact,
were actually calling into the conference from their farming fields.
If you become an ag economist, then you’re going to enter into a career
that goes beyond your typical office job. The third reason why I say this career offers
you a broader scope of work is that it allows you to travel. I’ll use myself as an example.
Since becoming an ag economist I’ve travelled to six of the seven continents in the world for work.
The only continent I’ve not been on is Antarctica. In fact, beginning of February I’m going to be
heading to Ghana for a workshop related to my work. So, as an ag economist you are entering
into a career that is global in nature and therefore offers you the opportunity to travel.
Again, a quick recap then. A career in agricultural economics is beyond the basic.
It’s beyond basic because, one, it offers you an opportunity to make a difference;
two, it has a broad scope of work; and three, you get to work in the largest global industry.
What do I mean by this? As an agricultural economist you get to work within the food system,
as we talked about before when we discussed the broad scope of work.
The thing about this industry is that this is one of the largest sectors globally.
How do I support this claim? With evidence.
First, in 2020 the global food market generated over US$8 trillion in revenue.
This was an increase of over US$1 trillion since the previous year or since 2019.
Second, this sector is projected to grow. Statista is estimating that food market revenues worldwide
will continue to grow over the next three years to reach US$9,1 trillion in value by 2025.
Thirdly, the food industry is the largest private sector employer.
In 2021, Walmart was the largest private sector employer in the world with 2,2 million employees.
Second was Amazon with 1,4 million employees.
Very briefly then, once more a recap.
A career in agricultural economics is beyond basic because, number one, it offers you an opportunity to make a difference in this world;
number two, your career options allow you for a broad scope of work;
and number three, you get to work in one of the largest global industries.
And so, with that I hope I’ve made my case and we would welcome you to join us at
Stellenbosch University in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Hope to see you soon. Thank you.