160 Aariculiural Research and Prochiclivlty 



riculture had been the absence of productive, climate, and eco- 

 nomic-specific technology. As these lines are written, the news 

 brings stories of disappointment with the imported high-yielding 

 varieties: in some cases, they were found to be susceptible to local 

 diseases; in others, they showed less tolerance to extreme 

 weather conditions than the traditional varieties. 



It seems, as the scientists in the international research centers / 

 would probably agree, that successful absorption of foreign-gen- | 

 erated technology depends on domestic research capabilities. If 

 This conclusion is immediately drawn from the history of sugar-^ 

 cane development. The relative backwardness of the Cuban sugar 

 sector is clear evidence on this point. This assertion is also sup- 

 ported by the findings reported in chapters 4 and 5. Analyses of 

 samples of almost all wheat- and maize-growing countries in the 

 world indicate strong and economically significant relations be- 

 tween domestic research and productivity. Moreover, in wheat 

 and maize the findings indicate that knowledge is transferred, and 

 it is borrowed from across international borders. But this borrow- 

 ing depends on two crucial factors: (1) the availability of ''bor- 

 rowable" knowledge, of knowledge embodying the appropriate 

 geoclimatic specificity; and (2) on the existence of an active in- 

 digenous research system, without which no knowledge is bor- 

 rowed in these crops, as it was shown not to have been transfer- 

 red in the sugarcane case. Agriculture in the developing coun- 

 tries—as was shown in chapter 2 — is disadvantaged on both 

 counts, belongs mostly to regions in which little agricultural 

 research has been done, and does not enjoy the support of a 

 strong domestic research system in the transfer and diffusion of 

 knowledge. 



The finding that research matters, in chapters 3 and 4 at the 

 single crop level, and in chapter 5 at the aggregate agricultural 

 sector level, is corroborated for India in chapter 6. Though the 

 developing world is highly diversified, India can serve well as pro- 

 totype of a developing country; she surely has most of the prob- 

 lems typical to countries in their early stages of development. But 

 she also has a pool of skilled and relatively highly trained man- 

 power. To the extent that this source of manpower has been tap- 

 ped and agricultural research institutions created and activated, 



