- January 25, 2020
Delivers a support service to all farmers in the Western Cape Province, and the major emphasis is to maintain and improve the current natural resources through implementation of projects, application of regulations, and communication campaigns. SRM is made up of four sub-programmes:
a) Engineering Services;
b) Land Care;
c) Land Use Management; and
d) Disaster Risk Management.
The increasing impacts of climate change (including a rise in the number and intensity of natural disasters) as well as the need to adopt green technologies and technologies aligned with the fourth industrial revolution, is increasing the need to ensure that appropriate and sustainable climate smart agriculture responses and resources are in place to minimise the negative impacts.
The Programme: SRM needs to respond accordingly, to continue to deliver a relevant service effectively, to mitigate risks and to utilise the opportunities afforded by a rapidly evolving technology environment. Accordingly, the Programme’s preparedness, effectiveness and needs for improvement or development in this environment, need to be evaluated. The Western Cape Department of Agriculture appointed Impact Economix to conduct a design and implementation/ process evaluation of the SRM. The evaluation will include consultation with a wide range of agriculture sector role-players, including organised agriculture commodity associations, emerging farmer associations, private sector service providers, academics, and other agriculture experts.
The evaluation includes a theory-driven approach to develop a theory of change for SRM. The evaluation’s purpose includes;
a) Assess the ‘Design’ and ‘Implementation’ of the Programme: SRM;
b) Identify internal and external constraints that compromise or limit the ability of the Programme: SRM to effectively deliver on its mandate; including relationships and service demand arrangements with other WCDoA Department structures and programmes (especially Farmer Support and Development (FSD)), and private clients;
c) Propose interventions that could improve the programme’s ability to effectively deliver on its mandate.