In 2014 Stellenbosch University (SU) initiated a new postgraduate programme in Sustainable Agriculture. Tawanda Marandure was among the programme's first intake of MSc students – and also became its first graduate. He is again leading the way as the first SU student to receive a PhD as part of the programme. He is currently putting his studies into practice as part of an international research group that is investigating the trade-offs between novel rangeland management with livestock production and livelihood outcomes in the Eastern Cape.

To this end, Dr Marandure has been based in Matatiele since the beginning of the year. He is a research assistant to a research and development programme run by Coventry University that is based in the United Kingdom. He is currently busy assessing so-called human-environmental trade-offs through low-tech intensification of livestock management in communal grazing systems in and around Matatiele. The assessment studies include amongst other aspects, the use of corralling, intensified planted pastures and the eradication of invasive woody plants.

“I am investigating if improved grazing management is benefiting the availability of water, and consequently improving vegetation, animal production and livelihoods," he explains.

“I feel that everything I'm doing is made easier due to the multidimension perspective of life that I learnt through my sustainable agriculture postgraduate studies," says Dr Marandure.

“The most important thing I learnt about life during my studies is to view every circumstance in a holistic context. The issue of contextualization and holistic thinking is important in making informed decision, rather than considering things at face value."

His research interests lie in ways to sustainably intensify livestock production, and how to assist smallholder livestock farmers to be more resilient and adaptive to the challenges they face in a livestock production environment.

Dr Marandure (40) received an MSc in Agricultural Meteorology in 2007 from the University of Zimbabwe. He was a high school teacher and a university lecturer in matters related to animal science in his home country, before relocating to South Africa to start his MSc studies at Stellenbosch University. In 2015, he was the first to receive MSc in Sustainable Agriculture degree awarded at the institution. His initial studies into matters related to sustainable agriculture was motivated by his wish for a career change that included working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and his desire to know more about interdisciplinary studies.

Dr Marandure hasn't looked back since. He remembers well how his mind was blown from the very first module that he had to take as part of his MSc coursework.

“The first module was on Systems Thinking. It made me look at life in general, and natural systems in particular in a holistic perspective. It changed a lot of single-sided opinions I had in life," he explains. Systems thinking can be described as a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's individual components interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems, rather as separate elements.

Systems thinking is now a way of life for him, and he often advises others to in some way, follow courses that can enlighten them on the subject. “It widens your appreciation of natural systems and improves your understanding of how complex systems can be analysed," he explains.

For his MSc degree, Tawanda completed a sustainability assessment of the smallholder beef cattle production system in South Africa, and how it can be vertically integrated into the country's formal beef market value chain, under the supervision of Dr Cletos Mapiye, a senior lecturer in the Department of Animal Sciences at Stellenbosch University. The Masters study formed the basis of his further PhD research, which was also carried out under the supervision of Dr Mapiye. Dr Marandure developed a sustainability assessment framework that can be used at a local scale to assess the sustainability of low-input ruminant farming systems in seven communities of the Eastern Cape.

The framework indicated that low-input ruminant farming in the Eastern Cape was moderately economically and socially sustainable. However, factors such as poor soil fertility and the low vegetation biomass supply, made it ecologically unsustainable. The economic and social sustainability credibility of low-input ruminant farming can potentially be increased by improving livestock productivity, animal health and increasing labour supply, while farmer training and women involvement in ruminant farming activities are also considered important factors.

“The framework that I developed and used in the Eastern Cape, should be applied to other low-input ruminant farming communities in the region and in Africa to test universality," says Dr Marandure.

More information about the Postgraduate Programme in Sustainable Agriculture at Stellenbosch University:

• The multi-disciplinary programme was launched in 2014 as a joint initiative between the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University, Wageningen University Research in the Netherlands, and Conservation South Africa.
• The MSc programme consists of modules ranging across the fields of agricultural sciences, humanities and economics, and touches on a broad range of topics that deal with the complex problem of agricultural sustainability. Through the coursework students tackle questions about food production whilst maintaining ecosystem services and social equity and justice, the potential of organic farming, the influence of politics on the agricultural landscape, and barriers that small-scale farmers face. The first year modules include: Introduction to Systems thinking and complexity, Sustainable Soil Management, Sustainable Plant Production and Protection, Sustainable Animal Production, Biometry, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Agrilandscapes, Sociology of Sustainable Agriculture, Economics of Sustainable Agriculture, Systems Analysis and simulation and Analysis of Land-use Systems. In their second year, students carry out individual research projects.

For more information, contact Mrs Julia Harper at [email protected].