Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
20 July 2022 | Story Lacea Loader
The University of the Free State (UFS) has formed a partnership with ZZ2 – a well-known South African farming and fresh produce company. The partnership includes the establishment of a company, FreeFarm Innovation, as a vehicle for combined outputs of the university and ZZ2’s diverse, but complementary capabilities, skills, and resources. 

Several opportunities relating to research, commercialisation, and the enhancement of various agricultural products have been identified and will form part of the operations of FreeFarm Innovation. 

New solutions and practices for the agricultural sector

“Universities are key role players in bridging the theory-practice gap by ensuring that we generate functional knowledge. The UFS is constantly exploring meaningful partnerships to support the improvement of local and global communities and industries. We are excited about the collaboration and partnership with ZZ2 in developing new solutions and practises for the agricultural sector” says Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation at the UFS. 

“We look forward to involving our top researchers and students in projects under the umbrella of FreeFarm Innovation. Additional areas of collaboration will include, among others, soil science, marketing, logistics, water quality, production systems, plant breeding, entomology, chemistry, and animal science” says Prof Witthuhn. 

Shared benefit for partners

“As one of the oldest, most respected institutions of higher education in South Africa, the UFS brings experience, top-class researchers, facilities, technology, and knowledge to the partnership. This is enhanced by ZZ2’s established, reputable, and successful business and network structure within the agriculture sector, both locally and globally,” she says. 

The initial key to the partnership will be the development of effective fertilisation products and strategies. “The values of the university to not compromise on quality and impact aligns with ZZ2’s focus on fresh product quality. Further alignment is also achieved through the employee training programmes and the ZZ2 academy,” says Prof Witthuhn.

News Archive

Expert in Africa Studies debunks African middle class myth
2016-05-10

Description: Prof Henning Melber Tags: Prof Henning Melber

From left: Prof Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), Joe Besigye from the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, and Prof Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor at the CAS and guest lecturer for the day.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Until recently, think tanks from North America, the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Plan, and global economists have defined the African middle class based purely on monetary arithmetic. One of the claims made in the past is that anyone with a consumption power of $2 per day constitutes the middle class. Following this, if poverty is defined as monetary income below $1.5 a day, it means that it takes just half a dollar to reach the threshold considered as African middle class.

Prof Henning Melber highlighted the disparities in the notion of a growing African middle class in a guest lecture titled A critical anatomy of the African middle class(es), hosted by our Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State on 4 May 2016. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the Centre, as well as Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Sweden.

Prof Melber argued that it is misleading to consider only income when identifying the middle class. In his opinion, such views were advanced by promoters of the global neo-liberal project. “My suspicion is that those who promote the middle class  discourse in that way, based on such a low threshold, were desperate to look for the success story that testifies to Africa rising.”

Another pitfall of such a middle-class analysis is its ahistorical contextualisation. This economically-reduced notion of the class is a sheer distortion. Prof Melber advised analysts to take cognisance of factors, such as consumption patterns, lifestyle, and political affiliation, amongst others.

In his second lecture for the day, Prof Melber dealt withthe topic of: Namibia since independence: the limits to Liberation, painting the historical backdrop against which the country’s current government is consolidating its political hegemony. He highlighted examples of the limited transformation that has been achieved since Namibia’s independence in 1990.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept