Dundee Research Station
The Dundee Research Station is one of five Agricultural Research stations in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, KwaZulu-Natal and is situated in the northwestern parts of KZN, near the town of Dundee. The clients of this institution vary from high producing, highly competitive commercial farmers to resource poor communal farmers and households and other stakeholders.
The mandate of research is, in essence, to contribute to the realization of the Departmental Strategic Objectives. At Dundee Research Station our vision is to support agriculture to be a vibrant industry which offers the people in KZN a good livelihood, promote economic development to relief poverty, create jobs and provide food security.
The Dundee Research Station strives to give clients the best value possible based on sound and tested technical and practical inputs. We welcome visitors, ad hoc clients, organized groups, as well as school groups, but believe in proper planning and presentation of training events and visits. To achieve this, internal teamwork and staff development are considered as cornerstones. Continuous upgrading (i.e. signs, roads, maintenance of infrastructure) is in place to make the Station more accessible to clients and to improve service delivery.
The Dundee Research Station programme included applied research trials, which are all directly applicable to farming operations, be they small or large scale, demonstrations and technology transfer. Pre-organized training events are organized annually, and ad hoc advice is offered, telephonic, personally or per e-mail. To assist in the training programme, several models are available. Several information brochures is translated to isiZulu, since mainly English versions are avialble.
Close relationships and consultation were kept with colleagues from other sections in the Department, tertiary institutions, scientific societies, organized agriculture, local farmers and households, in order to conduct a client-orientated service. All research findings are relayed to extensionists, farmers and other clients by:
- Progress and final reports, annual Departmental Research Symposium
- Scientific congresses and papers
- Farmers’ and info days, arrange visits to trial sites, lectures
- Popular press, leaflets
- General technical advice
- Organized training events
- Ad hoc advice provided
This approach, we believe, contains all the elements of Batho Pele and with the help of our Operational plan, SDIP, Service Delivery Charter and Policies, guided the Dundee Research Station to provide a satisfactory service to our clients.
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