New Insights on the Impacts of Public Agricultural Research and Extension

In order to feed the growing population of the world, expected to reach 9.6 billion people by 2050—a 29% increase over 2013—without causing immense environmental damage and human hunger, society must increase agricultural productivity. Two ways of achieving this are to invest in public agricultural research and to invest in public extension delivery. The importance of the need for increased investment is widely recognized.   Developed countries like the United States have been leaders in science-based agricultural productivity increases for most of the 20st century. However, after growing rapidly from 1960-1982, growth in public, productivity-oriented, agricultural research investment in the United States slowed considerably from 1980-1995, and then declined over 1995-1998 by 20% before turning around and showing some growth to 2006, before declining again during the Great Recession. In contrast, rapidly developing countries, such as Brazil and China, are investing heavily in agricultural research, putting future international competitiveness of U.S. agricultural exports at risk (Fuglie and Wang, 2012). Furthermore, consumers worldwide will be worse-off if future investments in public and private agricultural research and extension are not large enough to deliver declining real world food prices in the 21st century.