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                                                                                                                                         provided by Research Papers in Economics
                                  Problems and Potentials  of Agricultural
                                                               Economics  Extension
                                                                               Everett E.  Peterson
                           This session on Problems and Potentials of                              tion  relating  to  land  grant  universities
                       Agricultural 
                                           Economics Extension shows con-                          provides  a  useful jogging  of our  memories.
                       tinuing 
                                   concern  over the relevance  of agricul-                        The  important concept  in  the sequential  de-
                       tural economics  extension and research in the                               velopment is that the Cooperative  Extension
                       current socio-economic  setting.  This concern                               Service  was  established  to extend  results  of
                       has existed since the beginning of agricultural                             research to those who could apply them, i.e.,
                       economics  as a discipline,  but has intensified                            research is supposed to solve problems which
                       since  1970. Inclusion of this topic on the pro-                            concern  people.  Some critics,  including  this
                       gram  of  this  W.A.E.A.  meeting  is  also  an                             commentator,  feel  that  many  researchers
                       example  of overdue  efforts  to  increase  the                             have forgotten this or choose to ignore  it be-
                       interest  and  involvement  of  extension                                    cause  of present  criteria  for professional  ad-
                       economists in professional  associations  and to                            vancement.  In  my opinion,  any  broadening
                       bridge  the  widening  gap  between  agricul-                               of the  scope  of research  and  extension  pro-
                       tural  economics  research  and  extension.                                 grams beyond producing and marketing food
                           Our  soul-searching  at  this  time  is  stimu-                         has been more in response to external politi-
                       lated  by  the  problems  resulting  from  great                            cal  pressures  than  to  farsighted  leadership
                       political,  economic  and  social  changes  in                              among  agricultural  college  administrators.
                       America  and worldwide  since  1970.  People                                Another powerful influence has been that the
                       are  questioning  basic  American  values  and                              east wind periodically  wafts  the  sweet  smell
                       developing  new  value  systems.  The  impact                               of federal  dollars  to the  noses  of  these  offi-
                       on land grant universities is well summarized                               cials.
                       by  paraphrasing  Dr.  Wallace's  three central                                  Pressures  for  change  come  from  urban
                       questions:  1) Is  the  system,  which  worked                               taxpayers,  low-income  and minority  groups,
                       well  before  1970,  adequate  to serve  the  na-                            consumers,  environmentalists  -                      groups out-
                       tion's  people  in  the  last  quarter  of this  cen-                        side  the  traditional  "agricultural  establish-
                       tury and beyond? 2) Should Colleges or Insti-                                ment."  Our  traditional  clientele  seek  to
                       tutes  of Agriculture  avoid most  of the above                              maintain  their present favored  position  as to
                       problems  by limiting research  and extension                                access  to  research  and extension  programs;
                       programs  (including  agricultural  economics)                               they  oppose change.  The  response  of many
                       to  producing  and  marketing  food?  3)  If the                             agricultural  colleges  has  been  defensive,  a
                       answer to question 2 is "No" and the decision                                                    past achievements; but examples
                       by  administrators  with  courage  and  leader-                              recitation of 
                                                                                                    of positive responses  can be found: for exam-
                       ship qualities  is for  continued and deeper in-                             ple,  "Who  Will  Control  U.S.  Agriculture?",
                       volvement  in  human  and  natural  resource                                 and  "Your  Food."  The  concerns  of non-
                       development issues, what changes are neces-                                                                                               can  no
                       sary  within  the  universities  to                                          traditional clientele are legitimate  and 
                                                                             respond  to            longer be  ignored.  Our  choices  are  to  meet
                       newer,  broader  concerns  of society?                                       their needs through  established  procedures,
                       Background                                                                   to  be told to do so by legislative  mandate,  or
                           Historical  review  of basic  federal  legisla-                          be by-passed.
                                                                                                        Within  the  university  system,  most  ag-
                       Everett E.  Peterson is  Extension Economist,  University                    ricultural  economics  departments  face  com-
                       of Nebraska.                                                                 petitive disadvantages  in obtaining funds be-
                                                                                                                                                                      253
                                                                                                          Economics
                                                                                            of Agricultural 
                                                                                     Journal 
                     1978                                                    Western 
           December 
           cause  they  lack  politically  powerful  off-        tion  for  scarce  resources;  and availability  of
            campus  constituencies.  Farm  management            competent staff.
            and marketing  are more  likely to be  recog-           I  wish  to  underscore  Wallace's  comments
           nized  and  adequately  supported  than public        on the widening gap between agricultural re-
            affairs and community resource  development          search  and  extension  needs.  Researchers
           which are still "on probation"  and "searching        have  accurately  sized  up  the  pay-off  from
           for  identity"  in  the  current  socio-economic      publishing  articles  in  professional  journals,
           environment.  Also the latter two subject mat-        even  though  this means  limiting the market
            ter areas deal with politically sensitive  issues.   for  research  results  to  colleagues  in  other
            Research and extension programs on such is-          universities.  As  stated by  one writer  on  the
            sues  may  lead  to  criticism  of the  university   relevance  of agricultural  economics,  "In  the
           which  makes  many  administrators  uncom-            current  vernacular,  their  intellectual  'high'
                                                                                              satisfaction  through
            fortable.  But  university  administrators  are      seems to attain a level of 
            not  paid higher  salaries  to  lead comfortable     quantitative analyses of masses of data, which
           lives  but rather  to  make  hard  decisions  and     provide  the  opportunity  for  constructing
           take  some risks.                                     economic  models,  utilizing  computers,  and
                                                                 thus  keeping  busy  without  bothering  any-
            Problems                                             one."  [Scroggs]  I would argue that extension
                                                                 economists  save  most agricultural economics
                       listing of problem areas  shows  that     departments  from  virtual  isolation  from  the
               A brief                                           real world.
            the need for agricultural economics  extension          Within  some  departments,  the  attitude
            programs  is  tremendous,  almost overwhelm-         still prevails  that extension  is  the "employer
            ing.  Demand  is  derived  from  dissatisfaction     of last  resort"  for  those  who  can't  make  the
            with firm  or  institutional  performance,  from     grade  in  teaching  and  research.  Extension
            perceived need for changes  to cope with eco-        economists have not yet overcome the stigma
            nomic,  social  and  political  problems,  and       that  they are  less  well  trained  than research
            from desire for better performance.  Demand          economists.  This has  some historical basis,  a
            is  made  effective  by  consumers'  willingness     holdover  from  the  days  when county  agents
            to  spend scarce  time and  money to become          were  "retreaded"  to  become  specialists.  A
            more  educated and so gain personal  satisfac-       major  institutional  problem  for many  exten-
            tion,  improved  economic  status  and  better       sion  economists  is  the  inadequacy  and inap-
            institutional  performance,  and by their abil-      propriateness  of the  performance  evaluation
            ity  to  exert economic  and  political  pressure    process.  Department  heads  try to apply  the
            on suppliers  of agricultural  economics  educa-     same  criteria  as  for  research  and  teaching
            tion.                                                staff.  Extension  directors  tend  to  look  at
               This  product (agricultural  economics  edu-      number  of meetings  and  attendance,  miles
            cation) will not sell unless  it has an interested   travelled,  personal  contacts,  feed-back  from
            "student  body."  But  these  students  are          county  agents  and  agricultural  leaders,  and
            problem-oriented  volunteers  who  can't  be         program  results  measured  in  dollar  terms.
            coerced  into attending "school."  Researchers       Participation  by extension  economists in na-
            are  less  concerned  about this  than extension     tional and regional extension  projects  and on
            economists  because professional  journals  are      university committees are regarded as extra-
            often regarded  as the primary  market for re-       curricular  activities  which  "cause  state  pro-
            search results.                                      grams  to suffer."
               The  quantity  of  economic  education
            supplied  is  a  function  of:  the  existing  eco-
            nomic,  social and  political  climate;  adminis-     Possible  Solutions
                                     judgment as to risks of
            trators' evaluation  and 
            involvement and  non-involvement;  competi-              Like  with  God,  mother  and  country,  it's
            254
               Peterson                                                                           Extension Economics
                hard  to disagree  with  the  broad  generaliza-         velop  educational  materials  and  pro-
                tions  in  this  section,  but  difficult  to  apply     grams  on  problems  common  to  more
                them. This is due in part to the wide variation          than  one  state  through  administrative
                among states  as  to problems  and  resources.           sanction  and  financial  support  of  such
                Agricultural  economics  has  a  broad  base  of         projects;
                support  in  a few  states,  very  little  in most.   4.  Using the team approach to multidiscip-
                Examples  of multidisciplinary  approaches  to           linary  problems  through  (a)  mutual
                major  issues are  also few  and far  between.           agreement  and cooperation,  (b) admin-
                  The potentials and boundaries of extension             istrative leadership and direction,  (c) al-
                programs  appear to be quite well defined  in            location of funds  for honoria  and  sum-
                production  economics,  marketing  and  ag-              mer- appointments,  and  (d)  extending
                ribusiness, and natural resource use and con-            the  agricultural  college  model  to  the
                trol.  The  nature  and  scope  of our  respon-          total  university.  Appropriate  proce-
                sibilities for  off-campus  educational  activities      dures for recognition of contributions of
                in public affairs  and community resource de-            team  members  to the joint effort must
                velopment  are  less  clear.  This  is  demon-           be  established  to  minimize  such  feel-
                strated by the wide range of issues discussed            ings as "I did all the work but he got all
                over  the  past  twenty  years  at  the  National        the  credit."
                Public  Policy  Education  Conference.  Obvi-
                ously public affairs  and CRD  specialists can't   Concluding  Statement
                be all  things to  all  people;  they  must decide                          veteran  of twenty-five
                on program  priorities.  Strong  administrative       As  a  battle-scarred 
                support  is  needed  for  this  purpose  and  for  years  as  an  extension  specialist  in  public  af-
                access to needed expertise in other colleges.      fairs  education,  my advice  to younger exten-
                  Some additional suggestions  for improving        sion economists  is  to:  1) Keep trying to  com-
                the  effectiveness  of agricultural  economics     municate  research  needs  to  researchers  de-
                extension  programs are:                            spite limited success in the past, to work with
                   1.  Strengthening  staff  training  programs    them  so  that  research  results  can  be  pres-
                      through (a) more emphasis on extension        ented to  managers  and policy  makers  in an
                      career  opportunities  at  the  under-       understandable  and usable manner; 2) Listen
                      graduate  level;  (b)  establishing  exten-   to  colleagues  and  clientele,  including  non-
                      sion graduate assistantships  and intern-     traditional  customers,  to  identify  their  con-
                      ships  in universities,  industry  and gov-  cerns;  and  3)  Anticipate problems  and  de-
                      ernment  with  the  same  status  as  re-     termine  how  our  expertise  can  help  solve
                      search and teaching assistantships;           these problems.
                  2.  Requiring participation  by specialists in    References
                      appropriate  regional  and  national  con-    Scroggs,  Claud  L.,  "The  Relevance  of  University  Re-
                      ferences,  workshops  and  seminars  for        search  and  Extension  Activities  in  Agricultural  Eco-
                      in-service  training  and continuing edu-       nomics  to  Agribusiness  Firms,"  Am.  Journal of Ag.
                      cation;                                         Econ.,  57(1975):  883-888.
                  3.  Encouraging  specialists  to  serve  on  re-  See  Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and
                      gional  and  national  committees  to  de-      Policies, 1958-77,  Farm Foundation,  Chicago,  Illinois.
                                                                                                                255
     December 1978                      Journal of Agricultural Economics
                                     Western 
      256
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...View metadata citation and similar papers at core ac uk brought to you by provided research in economics problems potentials of agricultural extension everett e peterson this session on tion relating land grant universities shows con provides a useful jogging our memories tinuing concern over the relevance agricul important concept sequential de tural velopment is that cooperative current socio economic setting service was established extend results has existed since beginning those who could apply them i as discipline but intensified supposed solve which inclusion topic pro people some critics including gram w meeting also an commentator feel many researchers example overdue efforts increase have forgotten or choose ignore it be interest involvement cause present criteria for professional ad economists associations vancement my opinion any broadening bridge widening gap between scope grams beyond producing marketing food soul searching time stimu been more response external politi lat...

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