Program Overview

Programme: BComHons Agricultural Economics

Introduction

The BComHons Agricultural Economics programme is offered by the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

Admission Requirements

• Relevant BCom degree with at least 60% for Economics and Agricultural Economics on 3rd year level and Statistics on 2nd year level.
• Prospective students will have to complete a placement examination before registration to assess students' knowledge of statistics, economics, and agricultural economics.

Registration for a Second Field of Study

• With reference to General Regulation G.6, a student who has already completed a bachelor of honours degree at this or another university, may, with the permission of the Dean, register for another degree, subject to the regulations applicable to the field of study in question and to any other stipulations the Dean may prescribe on the condition that there shall be no overlap in the course content of the first degree and the second degree.
• Such a concession may be withdrawn by the Dean/Deans if the student does not perform satisfactorily.

Acknowledgement of Modules

• Subject to the stipulations of G.22.1, G.23.2, and the Joint Statute, a Dean may acknowledge modules passed at another tertiary institution or at this University in a department other than that in which the honours study is undertaken for the honours degree – provided that at least half of the required modules for the degree in question are attended and passed at this university.
• If there is overlap in the course content of the degree for which the student wishes to enrol or is enrolled and a degree already conferred, the Dean may not acknowledge any modules that form part of the degree already conferred.

Other Programme-Specific Information

Students intending to continue with the MCom degree in Agricultural Economics are advised to choose their elective modules from MIE 780, EKT 713, EKT 723, and LEK 11.

Examinations and Pass Requirements

• In calculating marks, General Regulation G12.2 applies.
• Subject to the provisions of General Regulation G.26, a head of department determines, in consultation with the Dean:
  • When the honours examinations in his/her department will take place, provided that:
    1. Honours examinations which do not take place before the end of the academic year must take place no later than 18 January of the following year, and all examination results must be submitted to Student Administration by 25 January; and
    2. Honours examinations which do not take place before the end of the first semester may take place no later than 15 July, and all examination results must be submitted to Student Administration on or before 18 July.
  • Whether a candidate will be admitted to a supplementary examination, provided that a supplementary examination is granted, only once in a maximum of two prescribed semester modules or once in one year module;
  • Supplementary examinations (if granted) cover the same subject matter as was the case for the examinations;
  • The manner in which research reports are prepared and examined in his/her department.

Minimum Credits and Module Requirements

• Minimum credits: 120
• Credits to the amount of 120 must be obtained - 105 from core modules and 15 from elective modules.

Core Modules

• LEK 713: Agricultural Marketing
  • Module content: Agricultural marketing, the nature, development, and conceptualisation of marketing and marketing study; the marketing environment, nationally and internationally; the functional and institutional approaches to marketing study; price discovery and margins; dynamics of agricultural and food marketing channels; competition and concentration on horizontal and vertical level; conflict and power relationships in agricultural marketing; economics of food consumption, consumer behaviour, and consumer action; food market segmentation; food quality and branding, price, product, promotional, and distributional policy; marketing analysis and planning. Global food marketing issues, contracting, and changing global food retail patterns.
• LEK 720: Agribusiness Management
  • Module content: Strategic management in agriculture, dynamics of agricultural management, entrepreneurship, environmental scanning, productivity measurement, and improvement thereof by the organisation of manpower, capital, and financial sources. Business growth, formulation, and implementation of competitive strategy, corporate governance, strategic analysis, and strategic choice, strategy implementation, balanced scorecard.
• LEK 722: Agricultural Finance and Risk Management
  • Module content: Agricultural finance, economic theory underlying agricultural finance and agricultural finance institutions, supply and demand of agricultural financial services, servicing the farm and the agricultural business firm, agricultural finance within the broader financial market in South and Southern Africa, risk assessment, and management, risk in agricultural finance, and mitigation strategies.
• LEK 777: Agribusiness Research Report: Case Study
  • Module content: In this module, students have to select a specific agribusiness and analyse one key dimension of this business. This dimension could be: marketing programme, supply chain management, strategic plan, market analyses, etc. This component of the course should serve as an opportunity for students to identify prevalent problems in an agribusiness and to devise appropriate solutions.
• LEK 782: International Agricultural Trade and Policy
  • Module content: WTO/GATT-1994 and agricultural related Agreements and Understandings, regionalism and trade blocks, international trade and economic development, South Africa's agricultural trade policy, involvement in bilateral and plurilateral agreements, application of international market analysis tools, international trade and tariff statistics, trade modelling, theory, and familiarity in international and regional databases.
• LEK 788: Agricultural Supply Chain Management
  • Module content: Agricultural supply chain analysis, explore the evolution of supply chain management in the global food industry, establish the different ways in which supply chain management can provide a source of competitive advantage at industry level and for individual firms, examine the cross-functional and multidisciplinary nature of supply chain management as it applies in the global food industry.

Elective Modules

• EKT 713: Econometrics
  • Module content: An introductory yet comprehensive course in econometrics, encompassing an in-depth examination of elementary statistics and regression analysis.
• EKT 723: Econometrics
  • Module content: An advanced course in econometrics that goes beyond elementary statistics and regression analysis.
• LEK 711: Advanced Production Economics
  • Module content: Advanced production economics, primal approach, structure of the production technology, and properties.
• LEK 784: Advanced Rural Finance
  • Module content: Advanced rural finance, economic theory underlying rural financial markets and institutions.
• LEK 785: Agricultural Project Planning and Appraisal
  • Module content: Project planning and priority setting, economic analysis of agricultural development projects, monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, project management, welfare economics, and political economy considerations.
• MIE 780: Microeconomics
  • Module content: The core concepts of microeconomic theory, including demand and supply, consumer theory, firm theory, markets, and market structure.