162 A^ricuhiiral Research and Proihiclivily 



less-developed countries? And why haven't the international 

 agencies given higher priority to research? 



It is surely the case that among the alternative instruments for 

 realizing growth and improved technology, a serious overestimate 

 of the effectiveness of extension and ''infrastructure'' has been 

 made. This overestimate was based on a general failure to under- 

 stand fully the impediments to diffusion of technology. It is also 

 understandable that attempts to accomplish the objective of gen- 

 erating growth should recognize supply factors. Our data show 

 that in many countries the skills of the scientist are scarce and 

 high-priced while those of the extension worker are much lower- 

 priced. 



The availability of scientific skills suited to conditions in less 

 developed regions explains part of the apparent underinvestment. 

 Expanding a research program under conditions of restricted sup- 

 ply of scientific skills is not a simple matter. Marginal costs of 

 scientific manpower may have been well above the average costs 

 used in our calculations, and the disequilibrium may not be quite 

 as serious as it appears. Supply constraints have been recognized 

 by development agencies, as revealed in graduate fellowships for 

 study in the universities of the developed countries. 



Unfortunately, progress in the development of first-rale gradu- 

 ate training institutes in the developing countries has been very 

 slow. The evidence that this study has provided regarding the im- 

 portance of the fundamental sciences to technological research 

 surely calls for aggressive action on this front. 



We have not dealt very thoroughly with the international cen- 

 ters in this volume. Some observers hold the view that these cen- 

 ters must be relied upon for the bulk of the technological discov- 

 ery in the next few years. The reputation of indigenous research 

 programs is not generally high. Surely the contributions of the 

 improved wheat and rice varieties has been significant. As our 

 analysis in chapter 5 shows, however, the larger part of the 

 realized productivity gains has been realized as a consequence of 

 the work of indigenous national research programs. The real 

 payoff to investment in the international centers lies in creative 

 interaction between international and national programs (Even- 

 son 1974). 



