Commenting on the release of the ARC's annual report, CEO Dr Shadrack Moephuli says they had to think out of the box to make up for funding cuts, particularly as challenges in the general economy also impacted efforts to generate additional income from the private sector.

He says fixed costs increased by 7% but they managed to contain overall expenditure to an increase of no more than 1%.

One of the successes over the last year was the release of 23 new cultivars, including four higher yield wheat cultivars. He says they are extremely proud of the number of masters and doctoral students that have come from the research ranks:

“We have post-graduate students on our projects and have been training them together with the universities. Last year about 23 of them got Master’s degrees through the work of the ARC and 25 of them got PhD degrees.”

Moephuli says the ARC received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor General.

- OFM News