US Land-grant Universities Research Articles

Universities and agricultural biotechnology patent production

Using patent data, this work provides an initial empirical investigation into university production of agricultural biotechnology patents. We develop a consistent theoretical methodology for understanding the university patent production process and then estimate count data econometric models of university-owned agricultural biotechnology patents on a series of explanatory variables. The zero inflated negative binomial econometric model used allows inclusion of all major universities, rather than merely those dedicated to agricultural research. The results demonstrate the importance of the US land grant university infrastructure, technology transfer offices, and star scientists. [JEL Codes: L300- Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise: General Q160- Agricultural Technology: Agricultural Extension Services C240- Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models: Truncated and Censored Models] © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Changing Role of Extension Plant Pathologists

statistical data base, plant pathology, extension specialists A discussion of the changing role of extension plant pathologists must be done with an historian's and a futurist's perspective. This topic and related issues have been addressed by Home (4), Jacobsen (5), and Sherf (13 ); however, new issues relating to extension and extension specialists suggest that the topic be revisited. May 8, 19 89, marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Cooperative Extension Service and the formal addition of Extension to Research and Teaching as missions of the land-grant education system. The development of a land-grant university with these three missions was the result of a long evolution, still in process today within the modem US land-grant university, and affecting the structure and function of each com­ ponent.

The Development of National Agricultural Research Capacity: India's Experience with the Rockefeller Foundation and Its Significance for Africa

Technical change is one of the critical elements that determine the pace of agricultural growth in developing countries. International agricultural research centers currently initiate much of the scientific work necessary for technical change, but individual countries also need to be able to identify what is relevant in the existing stock of international knowledge, to conduct adaptive research and farm-level tests, and thus to tailor techniques discovered in the laboratory to the specific requirements of different farming locations.1 These functions require investments in national scientific and technical institutions. The public sector is heavily involved in this enterprise because agricultural research requires lumpy investments, involves externalities, gives rise to public goods, and is subject to long gestation lags. As a measure of the scale of the effort of multilateral and bilateral official donors in supporting farm technology development at the national and international levels, the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) spent $163 million worldwide in 1985.2 Despite these expenditures, the process by which countries develop their own agricultural research capacity is little understood, as are the links in the long chain of research, experimentation, adaptation, and dissemination of technology. The theory of induced innovation, for instance, which explains technical change and institutional innovation as the result of relative factor scarcities, tends to treat as a "black box" the process of national capacity-building.3 Others have postulated that the demand for technical change reflects pressures from interest groups, but this approach has limited value as an explanation

Poultry Research Programs in the Future

A summary of the development and evolution of poultry research programs at US land-grant universities is presented. The number of poultry science departments has declined from a high of 44 separate departments in 1960 to 16 in 1987. During the same period, the number of scientific man-years devoted to poultry research has declined from 423 to 305. Expenditures for poultry research have also declined over this period, with some indication that the amount of appropriated funds from both state and federal sources has reached a plateau at an approximate constant level, except for the effects of inflation.Many changes have taken place in research programs at agricultural experiment stations to keep research relevant to development of the agricultural sector. High level of state funding for agricultural research is very positively correlated to research programs that are tied closely to economic development of the state.