Discussion: Institutional Aspects of Agricultural Development Policy

Abstract

likewise, in the 1960-64 period, the second-best decile of farmers in a major wheat district had 30 percent higher yields than the premier wheat breeding station.5 This lesson has probably now been learned. The new danger is that the pendulum may swing to the opposite extreme, with the argument that if the research job is done properly, the resultant innovation will essentially sell itself to economically minded farmers of the world. What is not understood is that the profitability of innovation depends in large measure upon the care with which it is applied and that much innovation involves a complex set of changes. A careful educational program run by competent technicians is needed to impart the necessary knowledge. Further, although innovators may make careful economic decisions regarding profitability of innovation, many farmers are followers who do not calculate carefully. The processes by which innovation spreads to such farmers and the means which could speed the spread of such innovation are not understood in most parts of the world, and hence the diffusion of complex innovation will occur less rapidly than is now expected. We have, in fact, little experience with improving extension programs because in the past we have had very little complex, profitable innovation to spread. As research programs improve, as they now are doing, the present failings of the systems for diffusing knowledge will begin to show clearly. Research is a necessary condition of technological change in agriculture. An educational program competent in the technical aspects of production and the social processes of communication and emulation can buy time. And time, which is a prime determinant of rates of growth, is of the essence in both the technical sense of economists and the emotional sense