Agricultural Research Amendment Draft Bill

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries invites you to submit written comments on the draft Agricultural Research Amendment Bill.

The Bill seeks to amend the Agricultural Research Act, 1990 (Act No. 86 of 1990) in order to:
▪ provide for differentiation between a juristic person, the Agricultural Research Council, from the entire national agricultural research system (NARS) which requires a new bill;
▪ determine and refine the functions of the ARC in relation to other roleplayers, and contextualize this role in terms of the needs of the sector and the expectations of government;
▪ improve the governance issues related to the Board, as well as mandatory reporting as per the PFMA;
▪ ensue alignment of the ARC's focus areas with DAFF's strategic thrusts;
▪ recognize the NARS and provide for a governing body mandated to coordinate national activities and programmes, especially where public funding is involved through the provision of a monitoring and evaluation service to perform a policy advisory service to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries;
▪ and improve national coordination, accountability and inclusivity, and funding in the sector.

Comments can be emailed to RJ Sobola at [email protected] by no later than Monday, 2 September 2013.