Training Agricultural Economists for Public Careers

Abstract

A I have tried to think my way through the subject of this discussion, I find myself digging into questions of methodology. My remarks, therefore, are not about courses, jobs, and the problems before the various agencies that support public careers for persons trained in agricultural economics. Instead I have attempted a presentation of some of the issues, the deeper issues as I understand them, which I have encountered as I have thought about training students in agricultural economics for public careers. Even if the outcome should be different from that which was originally anticipated when the program was projected-my only defense would be that methodology is all that can be taught students of economics anyhow. The over-all question in my mind is how do we assist or stimulate a student towork out a viewpoint of his own. To me this is the essence of graduate work. I notice that some professional workers in agricultural economics get along reasonably well with a minimum amount of advanced training. But most people seem to need 3 to 5 years of graduate work in economics and related fields. But the critical point, I judge, is not the time spent but the viewpoint developed. How comprehensive the viewpoint needs to be, depends upon the work to be done; evidently it should be sufficiently broad to embrace the main issues in the work undertaken-to give comprehensive references for dealing with whatever problems fall within the range of the job. My own observations of the work of graduate students has led me to attach increasingly greater importance to the programs of undergraduate study. It is here that students establish their main reference points for dealing with later issues. For most students the day is too late to take background courses after they have enrolled in graduate schools.