Vernon W. Ruttan. Agricultural Research Policy.
Khan, Mahmood Hasan
Vernon W. Ruttan. Agricultural Research Policy. Minneapolis,
Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 1982. xiv + 369 pp. Price:
$13.95 paper back.
This book makes an important contribution to the literature on the
development and transfer of new technology for profitable farming the
world over. Professor Ruttan has had a distinguished career in research
and its administration in a number of institutions. He brings that
experience to bear on his analysis of a variety of issues in
agricultural research. While much of the material contained in the book
has already appeared in his earlier writings, it is well organized here
around three themes.
The first is the induced innovation model: that the type of
technology developed and adopted in a country reflects a rational
response to relative scarcity of resources. New agricultural technology
helps in substituting the relatively scarce factors by those that are
relatively abundant. The signals are created mainly in the market-place.
It is not, however, clear how the induced-innovation model can help in
making current decisions about allocating resources to agricultural
research.
The second theme deals with the central role of the public sector
in agricultural research. Private sector has not played a significant
role in agricultural research, even in countries like the United States.
The reasons are well known to any student of elementary micro-economic
theory. What is even more significant is that the social return to
investment in research has a high pay-off under diverse conditions of
production and in different states of the development of the economy. A
persuasive case has been developed for a significant increase in public
funding for agricultural research in underdeveloped countries. But
Professor Ruttan rightly warns the impatient in those countries that
agricultural research systems develop slowly and painstakingly. It is in
this context that the role played by international research institutes
is highlighted.
The last theme relates to the role of social scientists and other
researchers in managing agricultural research, particularly with respect
to planning and evaluation of research programmes, and in disseminating
new technology. The demand for social science (economics) research is
derived from the need to improve private return from using new
technology. It is for this reason that the responsibility of social
scientists in research institutions should be carefully integrated with
that of other researchers. This should be of special interest to
managers of agricultural research in countries like Pakistan, where
agricultural economists have not been involved with the on-going
research of agronomists, plant breeders, pestologists, and the rest.
Professor Ruttan says early in the book that his opinions are not
guided by any particular philosophy or ideology. Yet it is interesting
that he is wedded to the induced-innovation model without paying much
attention to the close interdependence between institutions and private
profitability of new technology. Also, he overestimates the impact of
marginal (price) changes in the market-place on land tenure etc. The
political economy of agricultural research, particularly in many
underdeveloped countries today, often reflects signals of markets that
are highly concentrated, if not entirely monopolistic. The existing
market structures are in turn a reflection of the institutions around
land in agriculture. It is important, therefore, to integrate into
agricultural research issues that are directly related to the effects of
agricultural technology on income and employment positions of different
groups of farmers in the society.
Research administrators in underdeveloped countries would be well
advised to study Professor Ruttan's book, with particular attention
to chapters on financing and management of international and national
agricultural research facilities.
Prof. Mahmood Hasan Khan
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
