The training of professional agricultural extension officers is accomplished through a unique partnership between the School of Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Sciences and CEDARA Agricultural College. In this memorandum of agreement , the undergraduate programme is taught on the CEDARA campus, and PG student registration , supervision and mentoring are offered on the Pietermaritzburg campus.

Professional Extension requires the development of capabilities in six areas:

• Innovation
• Technology Development & Scientific Enquiry
• Sustainable Livelihoods en Development Concepts
• Learning
• Systems Thinking
• Target Facilitation

The AERRM programme developes competencies in these areas through the following content:

Undergraduate Content

• Rural economic systems and prosperity
• Rural development and wealth creation
• Extension theory and participatory extension practice
• Natural resources and sustainable land use
• Farming systems
• Farm business management and land use planning
• Agricultural production (crops and livestock)
• Farm infrastructure and machinery

Areas of research expertise offered in AERRM

• Agricultural extension and related topics
• Agricultural extension education
• Sustainable livelihoods and post-colonial participatory development, social ecology, trans and multi-disciplinary science, action learning and research

Content of Honours programmes

• Understanding complexity: Systems thinking foundations, extensions as learning
• Placement experiences in rural development organisations/institutions
• Project design and management for extension programmes
• Advanced extension theory and practice
• Research in Extension/Rural Development

PG Degrees Offered

• Bachelor of Agriculture Honours (Extension and Resource Management)
• Masters by Research in Agriculture (Agriculture Extension & Rural Resource Management)
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) by Research