Policy For Agricultural Research

Vernon W Ruttan, Carl E Pray, Robert Evenson, Prabhu L Pingali

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367283193
• eBook ISBN: 9781000306477
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The contributors to this volume, based on the Agriculture Research Seminars held annually at the University of Minnesota, examine the role of government, multinationals, and the emerging private sector (in both domestic and international contexts) in determining agricultural research policy.

Part 1
Global Perspective

Introduction

Vernon W. Ruttan

We are, in the closing years of the twentieth century, completing one of the most remarkable transitions in the history of agriculture. Before the beginning of this century almost all increases in food production were obtained by bringing new land into production. There were only a few exceptions--in limited areas of East Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. By the first decade of the next century almost all increases in world food production must come from higher yields--from higher output per hectare.

In most areas of the world the transition from a resource-based to a science-based system of agriculture is occurring within a single century. In a few countries this transition began in the nineteenth century. In most of the presently developed countries it did not begin until the first half of this century, and most of the countries of the developing world have been caught up in this transition only since raid-century.

In the first paper in this section, Judd, Boyce and Evenson document the exceptionally rapid growth of agricultural research capacity in the developing world between the late 1950s and the early 1980s. At the beginning of this period the developing countries were typically highly extension-intensive. Extension workers and extension budgets exceeded research workers and research budgets by several multiples. Although research expenditures and budgets have grown more rapidly, particularly since 1970, the developing countries are still relatively extension-intensive.

The Judd-Boyce-Evenson paper also sheds new light on a controversy about the Impact of the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), on the development of national agricultural research systems. A number of observers, including Evenson himself, had speculated that the investment in the IARCs tended to displace investment in national agricultural research systems. Statistical analysis indicates, however, that investment in the CGIAR centers has typically had a positive impact on investment in national agricultural research systems. The research conducted by the IARCs has, in effect, reduced the national centers' costs of advancing technology. National governments have responded by increasing their own research investments to take advantage of more profitable research opportunities. In addition to the favorable effect of the international centers on national research investment, Judd, Boyce, and Evenson document the substantial direct impact of the international centers on crop productivity and production.

The paper by Jock R. Anderson and Robert W. Herdt documents in greater detail the impact of the international centers on crop production and productivity. Their paper draws on a massive study conducted by the CGIAR in 1984 and 1985. The initial impacts were greatest in the case of wheat and rice. By the early 1980s there were beginning to be substantial impacts on the production of potatoes, field beans, cassava, maize, sorghum, and forage crops. The system has played a major role in germplasm collection and enhancement, farming systems innovations, and institutional arrangements in the areas of commodity policy and rural development. The centers have also been an important source of training for agricultural research personnel in the developing world.

In the last paper In this section I discuss some of the challenges that face both the international and national agricultural research systems as we move toward the turn of the century. The international system remains incomplete. A number of nonassociated centers supported by the same group of donors that fund the CGIAR system have grown up outside the system. Some of them address resource maintenance, development, and management issues in addition to commodity production. Their funding is less secure and the system of monitoring their performance is less adequate than in the case of the CGIAR centers. A global system that effectively links the lARCs, the national systems in the developing countries, the national systems of the developed market economies, and the centrally planned economies has yet to emerge.

A major challenge over the next several decades, for both national governments and assistance agencies, is to strengthen the national research systems. In spite of the progress that has been made, there are probably not more than half a dozen national systems in developing countries that are effectively institutionalized--that have achieved the professional, managerial, and fiscal viability necessary to perform at a level consistent with the needs of their countries.

Achieving viability in the national systems of the smaller countries poses particularly difficult problems. These systems will, of necessity, remain dependent on other national systems, regional networks, and the international system for advanced training, for advances in basic knowledge, for improvements in research methods, and for much of their technology development.

I also argue, in this paper, that new ways must be sought by the international community to provide financial assistance to developing national systems. Over the longer run, a move toward a formula approach in which donor support is based on national performance would seem desirable.

1
Investment in Agricultural Research and Extension*

M. Ann Judd, James Κ. Boyce, and Robert E. Evenson

The capacity to increase the supply of food and other agricultural products is of obvious importance to developing countries, particularly those faced with rapidly growing populations. Historically, growth in agricultural supply has passed through stages. As long as it was possible to bring new areas under cultivation at low cost, increased agricultural supply was achieved primarily through the expansion of cultivated area. As low-cost land conversion possibilities became exhausted, higher-cost sources of growth were exploited, notably investments in irrigation and drainage. Investments in agricultural research and extension systems have also produced growth in agricultural supply, as documented by a large number of economic studies. These studies, however, have revealed strong interactions of improved agricultural technology with soil and climate factors, which impede the diffusion of technology across broad regions. Agricultural experiment stations and associated extension services must, therefore, be located to serve specific subregions if their growth-producing potential is to be realized fully (Kislev and Evenson 1975; Evenson, Waggoner, and Ruttan 1979).

Agricultural research systems are complex institutions. The formidable public good problems encountered in most branches of scientific research are particularly acute in the case of agriculture. Patent laws protect mechanical and chemical inventions more easily than biological inventions. Hence crop and livestock research--plant breeding, phytopathology, entomology, agronomy, soil science, animal nutrition, and so on--are today primarily public-sector activities. The amount and type of agricultural research provided by the public sector in a

given country is influenced by a number of factors, including the supply of research personnel and public funds, the perceived opportunities for productive research, and the political strength of those who stand to gain from it whether as agricultural producers, input suppliers, or consumers. Today the industrialized countries retain their historical dominance in worldwide agricultural research inves...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Preface
• PART 1 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
• PART 2 CRISIS AND REFORM IN THE U.S. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SYSTEM
• PART 3 RESEARCH ORGANIZATION AND REFORM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
• PART 4 THE EMERGING ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
• APPENDIXES
• Β Science for Agriculture (The Winrock Report)
• About the Contributors