Agribusiness and Professional M.S. Degree Programs in Agricultural Economics in the United States

Abstract

American agriculture deserves most of the accolades it has received for its rich and productive history, especially in farm productivity. But a managerial crisis exists in agriculture (French). This blemishes the brilliant record of agricultural economists. Kellogg Foundation's Leadership Programs have been the most effective to date for upgrading agriculture leadership. They have brought broader social maturation to younger rural people, but unfortunately not leadership and wisdom for sound food and agricultural policy. And such a policy is vitally needed for better management. In fairness, these Kellogg programs were not designed to deal directly with management needs. They were targeted at farmers, not at managers of broadly based agribusinesses as defined by Goldberg and others (Woolverton et al., p. 1). Other contributions have not been nearly enough to avert the managerial crisis. Agribusiness has done some in-house executive education, and economists such as Emerson Babb and David Downey have effectively assisted these. Among the younger set, Randall Westgren at Santa Clara, Rob King at Minnesota, and Kerry Litzenberg at Texas have shown creativeness in agribusiness programs. Farm management had a rich university history. Its professional visibility has declined but may have increased recently in response to the farm financial crisis. The formal management education of both farm and agribusiness people has been weak. Priority placed on executive education by agribusiness industry has not been high enough. The Cooperative Extension Service has de-emphasized management. Thus, both formal and informal education have inadequately avoided a crisis. We have not taught enough modern business mana ement using the behavioral approach to management in marketing, finance, personnel, and production. Farm management and production economics were root priorities in this association. A few professionals got little association encouragement as they made pale thrusts into agribusiness management, so not many are into it. Erven reported in 1984 that sixty-seven agricultural economics departments showed only 5% of FTE's in agribusiness management and onl 15% in farm management. An equitable evaluation would inpute much upgrading of agribusiness management to non-land grant education.