Presidential address : 56 th Annual Congress of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa 2021
KP Kirkman
Current Address : University of KwaZulu-Natal E-mail Address : kirkmank @ ukzn . ac . za
NEWS
I have the privilege of delivering my
second presidential address to the Grassland Society of Southern Africa , 21 years after the first . What has changed ? What hasn ’ t changed ? Well , in January 2000 , we had just survived the non-existent Y2K catastrophe that threatened to send us back to the pencil and paper age . In 2021 , we are in the middle of a global pandemic that is not showing any signs of slowing down , there are regular reports of cyber-crimes increasingly impacting various industries and multinational companies , and anthropogenic impacts on climate and the environment are becoming increasingly evident .
South Africa is not the only country in the region to have been rocked by unprecedented civil unrest , violence and looting , which has highlighted several significant schisms in our communities and the political arenas . In 2000 , I stated that the only factor influencing the environment in which we operate as a Society that can be predicted with certainty is that the rate of change will accelerate . Looking back over the past 21 years , it certainly has , in many ways .
In 2000 , I pointed out the difficulty of defining a “ Grassland Scientist ” or “ Grassland Science ” in the context of the diverse disciplines , focus areas and professional backgrounds of the members of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa . In 2021 , this is becoming more apparent when perusing memberships lists , and also when examining the topics and the institutional affiliations of authors of the 17 papers published in 1999 and the 32 papers published in 2020 in the African Journal of Range and Forage Science . Firstly , the number of papers has almost doubled , which implies a healthy growth of science in our discipline . Secondly , the number of authors per paper has increased by more than 50 %, indicating greater multi-disciplinary input and greater teamwork . Thirdly , the profile of local southern African institutions to which the authors are affiliated has changed . While authors from universities were consistently close to 60 % of the local authorship in both years , contributions from agricultural institutions have declined markedly , while authors from environmental and conservation institutions as well as non-governmental organisations were not represented in 1999 but contributed significantly in 2020 .
This implies a shift in scientific focus away from agriculture to broader environmental and conservation issues in the research reported from a broader range of institutions and organisations in South Africa , which are typically multi-disciplinary in nature . Interestingly , the proportion of international ( from outside southern Africa ) authors increased from 16 % in 1999 to 40 % in 2020 . So , with that context as background , it is probably more difficult now to define a “ Grassland Scientist ” and “ Grassland Science ” now than it was in 1999 .
So , why the perceived move away from papers by authors affiliated to agricultural institutions to those by authors affiliated to environmental and conservation organisations ? Is it due to lack of capacity for funding in the agricultural sphere , or have we got all the answers relating to veld management and pasture production in an agricultural context ? Looking at the most-read articles and the most cited articles in the African Journal of Range and Forage Science , papers on grazing management and bush encroachment comprise the top three on both of these lists . Both of these topics have a strong agricultural application , considering that the majority of grassland / savanna area in southern Africa is under some form of livestock farming . Maybe we shouldn ’ t lose focus on the agricultural application of our science .
Activities of the Society highlighted in my 2000 Presidential Address included the organisation of Prestige Farmers Days and specialist symposia to stimulate debate among scientists and practitioners . These were reported and distributed in the form of special publications as well as in the Bulletin of the Grassland Society ( now Grassroots ). It has been a long time since the Society organised or was involved directly in symposia or farmers days that facilitate and encourage interaction between scientists and agricultural land users , even prior to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic .
The society currently runs online webinars and courses , but mainly aimed at members and the scientific community rather than at land users . Are we becoming insular ? Is it easier to debate among ourselves rather than taking our science to the users of that science ? Are we training scientists with the requisite practical and field skills to distil scientific principles into management strategies and recommendations for
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