Q. What is the impact of agricultural
Extension on productivity?
A. Agricultural research expenditures
affect productivity with a time lag. The traditional activity
of Extension is to reduce the time lag between development
of new agricultural technologies or information and the
application of those advances. Extension agents disseminate
information on crops, livestock, and management practices
to farmers and demonstrate new techniques as well as consult
directly with farmers on specific production and management
problems. Unlike research, it is reasonable to assume
that Extension has its major effect on productivity in
the current period.
Economists have devoted some effort to measuring the impact of
Extension on agricultural production and to estimating the rate
of return to Extension activities (e.g., Huffman
and Evenson; Yee
et al.; Ahearn
et al.). The empirical evidence on the rate of return to Extension
is more mixed than for research. Estimates range from 20 percent
to over 100 percent (Fuglie
et al.).
More recent studies (Huffman and Evenson)
find a low rate of return to public Extension. Huffman and Evenson
also find that farmers' schooling is a substitute for Extension,
possibly suggesting that Extension has become less important as
farmers' educational attainments have risen over time. For example,
farmers who have more education may be better able to assess the
merits of and successfully adapt a new technology to their particular
situations.
Lack of data is a major problem in estimating the rate of return
to Extension. The data reporting system for public Extension resources
is less complete than for public research, for which there is an
established system, the Cooperative Research Information System
(CRIS). Consequently, the historical Extension information is piecemeal,
and must be assembled from a variety of published and administrative
documents.
References:
Huffman, Wallace and Robert Evenson. 1993.
Science for Agriculture. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.
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