New AEASA Awards

Standard Bank of South Africa Awards for the best paper on transformation in agriculture.

Sponsor: The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
Award: First prize R10 000 and second prize R4 000

Eligibility

1.

The Awards shall be made to a member or members of AEASA. A member may receive the award for joint authorship in the case where the co-author(s) is/are not members.
2.

The awards shall be made at the Annual AEASA conference dinner.


Procedure

1.

A selection committee of four members of which one will be appointed by Standard Bank and the others by the AEASA Management Committee of AEASA to adjudicate all eligible papers..
2.

A publications selection committee of three members of AEASA shall be appointed by the Management Committee of AEASA to adjudicate all eligible published articles.
3.

The responsibility to identify and submit papers to the committee will rest with the members of the Association. The annual due date for the submissions are the 31st of July of each year. The committee will however endeavor to identify and obtain all papers which qualify.
4.

The committee shall decide on the best papers by majority vote.


Agrekon prize
1.  

In the case of the Agrekon prize the Agrekon editorial committee will submit the three best articles to the management committee which will make the final decision.


Adjudication

1.  

Adjudication of articles is to be done in as objective a manner as possible. The committee will act at its own discretion, but will rely on an adjudication system which includes the following:

  • Significance of research: To be considered significant the content must relate to one of the following: the economics of agriculture, environmental and natural resource economics, rural sociology, governance and public choice, community and rural development. This includes contributions in the field of business, extension, research and teaching of agricultural and rural economics. Preference is given to those articles dealing with Southern Africa.

  • Contribution to the discipline: The content should contain new developments in research and methods of analysis; apply existing methods to new situations; test new hypotheses or theories; new frameworks of analyses and application and/or present new facts or data.

  • Quality of conclusions: Conclusions should be sound and useful.

  • Readability

  • Topical: Relevance towards the issues of the day.
 

Best article published in Agrekon (published in the preceding year, excluding conference issue)

Sponsor: The SJJ de Swardt/Agrekon
Award: R1 800

Rules and Procedures
See rules and procedures for best-published article in a professional journal or book
 

  • Best Masters Thesis Award

Sponsor: ABSA Trust Bank Division
Award: Kruger Rand

Rules and Procedures

Eligibility

1.  

The award shall be made to a member of AEASA.
2.  

The award shall be made for the best Master’s thesis in the field of Agricultural Economics accepted and passed by a University in South Africa. This is intended to include both those submitted to Departments of Agricultural Economics and cognate departments such as Economics and Business Economics.
3.  

The award shall be made at the Annual General Meeting of AEASA.
4.  

Submissions in any particular year must have been accepted and passed by the relevant University at least three months prior to the annual Conference.
5.  

A thesis will qualify only if at least three copies are made available to the selection committee before the prescribed date.

Procedure
1.  

The heads of departments of agricultural economics at the various universities will serve on a committee to select the best thesis. The departmental heads will serve on the committee on a rotating basis with not more than three members serving at a time.
2.  

The AEASA management committee will invite departmental heads to submit the best thesis (one per department) in each department for this award. Three copies shall be submitted to the management not later than the end of June. The selection committee will be appointed depending on the submissions.
3.  

One member of the committee will be appointed convenor by the Management Committee.
4.  

The selection committee shall decide on the best M thesis by majority vote.
5.  

Submission should be made 3 months before the conference.


Adjudication

1.  

Adjudication of theses is to be done in as objective a manner as possible. The committee will act at its own discretion, but will be guided by the following criteria and weights:

(a)

Problem (15%): importance, relevance, originality, formulation of hypothesis/problem statement.
(b)

Research methods (25%): applicability and use of analytical techniques, originality and presentation of results, factual quality.
(c)

Economic concepts (25%): knowledge of the field, use of appropriate theory, analytical rigour and logic.
(d)

Results (20%): importance of results, conclusions and implications.
(e)

Presentation (15%): language, style, technical quality and referencing.
 

  • Best contributed paper at AEASA conference

Sponsor: ABSA Volkskas Division
Award: Gift voucher (American Swiss Jewelers) for gold watch (Value: R1 000)

Rules and Procedures

Eligibility

1.  

The award shall be made to a member or members of AEASA. A member may receive the award for joint authorship in the case where the co-author(s) is/are not members.
2.  

The award shall be made for the best paper submitted to the Contributed Paper session of the Annual Conference.
3.  

Only papers that are read at the Conference shall be eligible for the award.
4.  

The award shall be announced at AEASA’s Annual Conference Dinner.

Procedure
1.  

The Editor-in Chief of Agrekon will receive all submitted Contributed papers.
2.  

A panel of referees shall be appointed by the Management Committee of AEASA to adjudicate all eligible Contributed papers.

Adjudication
1.

The judging of contributions shall be done in two stages:

Contents (50%):
Contributed papers shall be judged on the merits of their contents as objectively as possible. The rules for adjudication of the Award for Articles and Publications shall serve as guidelines in this respect.

Presentation (50%):
The three best contributed papers shall be selected in the first stage. These papers shall then be given equal weighting for the purpose of the second stage of judging, i.e. presentation.
2.  

The selection committee shall arrange for the random selection of five adjudicators for each contributed paper.
3.  

These adjudicators shall score each of the papers in terms of the merits of their presentation, according to the criteria specified in the rules for best published article. The contents will contribute 50% and the presentation a further 50% to the final mark. The most meritorious paper shall be adjudged the recipient of the award.

Presentation of Papers at Conferences or Symposiums and Publication in Agrekon
  Procedure

1. The panel of referees to screen papers is appointed by the Management Committee of AEASA.

2. The Editor-in-Chief acts as co-ordinator of the panel.

3. The number of referees on the panel must be large enough to ensure that each paper is evaluated by at least 2 referees in a time-efficient manner.

4. All papers are submitted to the Editor-in-Chief to ensure that standards are maintained from one conference to another.

5. The evaluation of papers is according to rules as approved by the Management Committee of AEASA.

6. Papers which are accepted may be presented as either Contributed Papers or Poster Papers.

7. The author(s), affiliation and title of accepted papers are communicated by the Editor-in-Chief to the Conference Organizer (and member of the Management Committee) and/or Convener of the Programme Sub-committee on the Conference Organizing Committee as approved by the Management Committee of AEASA.

8. Every effort will be made to achieve maximum exposure of AEASA members through presentation of Contributed Papers and Poster Papers.

9. The final decision on the number of papers presented and the number of parallel sessions depends on the number of papers submitted and accepted as well as the facilities available during the Conference.

10. A balance must be obtained between Invited Papers (which may be reduced), Contributed Papers and Workshops, as determined by the theme of the Conference.

11. With invitation/acceptance of papers to be presented, authors are informed in writing that the publication of papers is subject to further evaluation by the panel of referees of Agrekon.

12. In order to save time, all submitted Contributed Papers are distributed by the Editor-in-Chief to Associate Editors and/or Agrekon referees immediately after they have been received.

13. Invited papers have to be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief at least two weeks after the Conference.

14. All papers are evaluated according to the rules and standards as applicable to Agrekon and the accepted Contributed papers are published in a Conference Issue (a fourth or fifth number of Agrekon) or a Special Issue (with or without Guest Editors) as approved by the Management Committee of AEASA.
 

  • Best poster paper at AEASA conference

Sponsor: AEASA Management Committee
Award: R200

Rules and Procedures
 

  • Best Student essay in Agricultural Economics

Sponsor: AEASA
Award: Registration fee for AEASA conference in year following award

Eligibility
1. Any undergraduate, honours or other first year postgraduate student doing course work in Agricultural Economics at any South African University shall be eligible to enter for the competition in the year of enrolment or the subsequent year.
2. The award shall be made to the student whose essay is judged to be the best for the particular year.
3. The award shall be presented to the winner at the annual general meeting of AEASA.
4. The winning essay will be published in Agrekon and the winner will be a guest at the following annual conference and will not be expected to pay registration fees for that conference.
Rules
1. The length of the essay should be at most 10 000 words.
2. The essay should be in the form of a seminar/article and should meet the technical requirements for publication in Agrekon.
3. The topic of the essay should be related to the theme of the following annual conference of AEASA, as announced at the previous Annual General Meeting.
Procedure
1. A selection committee consisting of three members will be appointed by the AEASA Management Committee.
2. The Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics of each South African university offering Agricultural Economics as a subject will be invited to submit an essay judged to be the best at that university for a particular year. Three copies of the essay must be received by the Secretary of AEASA at least three months before the date of the annual conference.
3. The selection committee shall decide on the best essay by majority vote.
Adjudication
The decision on the best essay should be reached in as objective a manner as possible. The selection committee will use its own discretion but will be guided by the following criteria.
1. Relevance of the essay to the topic
The content of the essay must relate to the topic decided upon for that particular year by the AEASA Management Committee.
2. Readability of the essay
The essay must be readable and well integrated.
3. Review of relevant literature
The author must demonstrate his/her familiarity with literature relevant to the topic.
4. Quality of conclusions
Conclusions should be sound and useful.
5. Grasp of economic concepts
The author must demonstrate that he/she has a good grasp of basic economic concepts.
6. Creativeness
The author must demonstrate the ability to formulate his/her own opinions through critical evaluation.
 Best final year student in Agricultural Economics (each University in South Africa that offers Agricultural Economics).

Sponsor: AEASA
Award: Registration fee for AEASA conference in year following award, plus Certificate
Selector: Head of Department of Agricultural Economics
 

AEASA prize for extraordinary contributions by AGRIBUSINESS

Sponsor: Land Bank
Award: Gold (or other) medal plus a certificate

*DEFINITION: Agribusiness is defined to include all business activities in the operational sphere of primary agriculture (on-farm business) and secondary agriculture (business activities serving primary agriculture and linking agriculture to the supply and marketing chain).
Eligibility
1. Any individual person or organisation with membership of AEASA involved in agribusiness* in South Africa should be eligible to enter for the competition.
2. The award should be made to the individual/organisation who made an extraordinary contribution to agribusiness during the preceding five years (of the conference year) in South Africa.
3. The award should be presented to the winner at the annual general meeting of AEASA or at a special event for this purpose.
Motivation
AEASA makes awards to academics, ranging from students to experienced agricultural economists, and these awards are for publications and lifelong achievement. There is however no award for individuals or organisations who performed exceptionally well in the field of agribusiness, thus encompassing more short-term achievements in the practical application of our discipline. The proposed award will act as an incentive for agribusiness to be recognised for its contribution to the South African economy. The award will also contribute to greater agribusiness involvement in AEASA and help to promote the Association.
Procedure
1. The AEASA Management Committee will appoint a selection committee consisting of three individuals involved in agribusiness.
2. AEASA will invite nominations from agribusiness on an annual basis. A justification statement, not exceeding 500 words, should be submitted to the committee on or before a deadline determined by the convenor of the committee. The convenor of the selection committee will arrange for an invitation to be published in the media.
3. The selection committee shall decide on the winner based on carefully established criteria and by majority vote.
Adjudication
The decision on the best candidate should be reached as objectively as possible. The selection committee will use its own discretion but will be guided by the following criteria:
A CV of the nominee should elaborate on the following four criteria for selection:
1. Leadership record
2. Recent achievements in the field of agribusiness
3. Involvement in the application of agricultural economics as a profession
4. Impact on the agribusiness policy environment
     

Leopard Award
 
 

AEASA's Leopard Award offers friends and colleagues the opportunity to honour an AEASA member in a ceremonial manner for his/her selfless sacrifices and kindred spirit in the field of agricultural economics. Hence, members of AEASA should take advantage of this opportunity to honour colleagues that are, for example, retiring from the profession. For further details contact the AEASA Secretary.

The Certificate will bear the name of the recipient of the award, the year, a replica of the AEASA emblem and the following inscription:

"For contributions to agricultural economics,
proposed by appreciative colleagues and friends.
This award supports work in the field of agricultural economics".