Investment in Af^rictiltiiral Research and Extension: A Survey 19 



The picture is somewhat more complicated regarding extension 

 spending, as the developing countries spend more on extension 

 than on research, whereas the developed countries spend 1.8 

 times as much on research as on extension. 



An alternative basis for comparison is expenditures per farm, 

 calculated in columns 3 and 4 of table 2.2. The very large 

 differences in size of farm in different regions dominates the 

 results. This particular comparison is not as useful with respect to 

 research as to extension, as it is possible that the level of exten- 

 sion activity should be related to the number of farmers to whom 

 information is to be supplied. 



The price (in U.S. dollars at official exchange rates) of research 

 and extension services (salaries and other expenses) varies sub- 

 stantially by regions (columns 8, 9). The less developed countries 

 spend roughly 60 percent as much per scientist and only 22 per- 

 cent as much per extension worker as the developed countries. 

 Some of these differences may be accounted for by the fact that 

 more laboratory equipment and technical assistance per scientist 

 is purchased in the developed countries. Scientists in Latin Amer- 

 ica and Southeast Asia have low salaries as well as low budgets; 

 the African countries, on the other hand, have relatively high 

 proportions of expatriate European research workers earning 

 high salaries. The differences in expenditure per worker between 

 the developed and the developing countries are more pronounced 

 in the extension data. To some extent this reflects greater quality 

 differences between extension workers internationally. 



Because of the widely varying prices of research and extension 

 services among regions, expenditure data can be somewhat 

 misleading. As alternative indicators, the table shows scientist 

 man-years and extension workers per $10 million of agricultural 

 production, and numbers of extension workers per thousand 

 farms. The distinction between the developed and developing 

 countries with respect to research becomes more marked when 

 the comparison is made on this basis. The developed countries 

 employ more than twice as many scientists per dollar's worth of 

 production than do the developing countries, even though they 

 pay 60 percent higher salaries. 



