Department
Agricultural Economics
Address
Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
Lindie von Maltitz was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She grew up on a farm and is also currently farming together with her husband in the Eastern Free State Province of South Africa. In 1998 she acquired her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics Honors degree after completing the four year undergraduate degree, both at the University of the Free State. During 1998 she started working as an agricultural economist at the Free State Department of Agriculture. In 1999 she was offered the position of operational manager at a fresh produce export company where she remained until the company relocated to Cape Town in 2004. Since 2001 she was also contracted as an agricultural economic consultant to several agricultural projects then funded by the European Union. She completed numerous feasibility studies for an extensive client base. During this time she was responsible for the planning, implementation and monitoring phase of a vast number of agricultural development projects. In 2010 her husband joined the farming group MD Foundation where Lindie also worked as an agricultural economist in management. In 2019 she was offered a bursary to complete her Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics of the University of the Free State after which she joined the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development as a lecturer. Since April 2022 she has been appointed as lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of the Free State. She has submitted her PhD titled “Skills and competencies of agricultural extension professionals in South Africa: Implications for higher education curricula”.
In her time with the university she has worked with international organizations such as IFPRI and MSU-AAP and local organizations including the Department of Agriculture, Land Affairs, and Rural Development and the South African Society of Agricultural Extensionists. She has lectured various courses including Facilitation for Development, Communication for Innovation, Risk Mitigation and Adaptation, Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Value Chains, Introduction to Agricultural Economics, and Finance and Farm Management.