Publicly Funded Agricultural Research and the Changing Structure of U.S. Agriculture (2002) / Chapter Skim
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1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Pages 16-29
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From page 16... ...
. Between 1959 and 1992, the number of farms declined by almost half, but average acreage increased 60 percent and average nominal sales grew tenfold (Sommer et al., 19984.
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, and it is predicted that 40 or fewer agricultural supply and distribution chains will soon dominate the swine industry (Drabenstott, 1998~. Although the increased concentration of production in farming has been dramatic, farming is not as concentrated as other industries.
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The most dramatic regional shifts in production during the post-World War II period were in the major livestock sectors. In the 1950s through the 1970s fed-cattle production shifted dramatically from the Eastern Corn Belt to the Western Corn Belt and the Southern Great Plains as the expansion of groundwater irrigation enabled rapid growth of feed-grain production in these areas.
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Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service from various studies.
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One major challenge is in meeting the diverse and complex needs of agricultural producers those in commercial agricultural production and those in the sector dominated by the multitude of smaller producers, including niche producers and low-income, limited-resource producers. Publicly funded research and technology are perceived to have favored increases in farm size and to have promoted
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This report analyzes the impacts of agricultural research on farm structure, and it offers recommendations related to research and extension programs. It evaluates the applicability of publicly funded agricultural research across the agricultural sector, which ranges from small, poorly capitalized farms to large, well-capitalized industrial organizations.
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The committee analyzed publicly funded agricultural research documented in the Current Research Information System (CRIS) database, which is USDA's documentation and reporting system for research projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry.
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, and there is considerable agreement that farm structure involves matters such as: · The size (measured in acreage or gross farm sales) and size distribution of agricultural operations, including the concentration of agricultural production the increasing share of agricultural output by fewer and fewer firms.
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This implies more closely coordinated value chains and fewer alternatives for selling agricultural products. Integrated Ownership: This is the major form of vertical integration, in which a company owns and operates, in addition to input supply or food processing and marketing, crop or livestock production in at least one stage of the food production chain (Tweeter and Flora, 2001~.
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From page 26... ...
Sources of Public Research Funds The committee considered publicly funded agricultural research any agricultural research performed with financial or material support from the public sector, including international organizations, federal agencies (e.g., USDA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Interior, the Department of Energy, or the Environmental Protection Agency)
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The committee instead chose to limit the scope of its analysis to a subset of publicly funded agricultural research that could be used as a proxy for the wider scope of research described above. The committee chose to emphasize the principal components of USDA-supported agricultural research and extension, including extramural research by state-level partners and other programs administered by
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. PRIVATELY FUNDED AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH Recent changes in the relative magnitude of public-sector and privatesector agricultural research provide important context for a discussion of structural change and publicly funded agricultural research.
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From page 29... ...
Third, it describes structural changes associated with the Green Revolution; the introduction of the tomato harvester; and innovations in animal agriculture, including the use of recombinant bovine somatotropin. Finally, the chapter discusses the structural implications of research priorities, including criteria for setting priorities and for obtaining input from stakeholders.
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