20 Agricultural Research and Productivity 



Expenditures and scientific manpower are inputs into the agri- 

 cultural research system. The output of the system is the new 

 knowledge created or "borrowed" and transferred from other 

 countries or disciplines ' by the agricultural scientists. This 

 knowledge is the factor of production affecting productivity in ag- 

 riculture. As knowledge is intangible, we took as a proxy measure 

 of its creation the number of scientific publications in particular 

 agricultural sciences (table 2.3). More than 200,000 publications 

 were tabulated in the following areas: ^ 



1. Wheat 8. Cotton 



2. Barley 9. Animal husbandry 



3. Maize (general) 



4. Sorghum 10. Poultry 



5. Sorghum 11. Dairy 



6. Sugar Crops 12. Phytopathology 

 (cane and beets) 13. Soil sciences 



7. Potatoes 14. Plant physiology 



The tabulations were made from three abstracting journals, Plant 

 Breeding Abstracts, Dairy Science Abstracts, and Biological Abstracts. 

 The selection procedures employed by these journals provides a 

 quality standard. Only genuine scientific contributions are 

 abstracted; instruction pamphlets and similar materials are not 

 abstracted. Publications were assigned to countries by the address 

 of the first author. Thus a British scientist working in Africa is tre- 

 ated as an African scientist. 



Publication data are utilized in the last section of the present 

 chapter and in chapters 4, 5, and 6, as proxy measures of the crea- 

 tion of knowledge. As a measure of research activity they have 

 certain advantages as well as limitations. 



1. They are a "real" measure free of exchange-rate difficulties. 



2. They measure research accomplishment or output rather 

 than inputs. 



3. They provide the only available measure of commodity 

 orientation of research. 



2. For further reference, the areas will be regarded as products (wheat, 

 barley. . .) or subsectors (poultry, dairy. . .). 



