The future of food supply depends in large measure on the achievements of agricultural research. Whether or not we will succeed in doing the necessary research is of no concern to the sun, or to the earth and the wind that sweep her face. Research must be treated as an economic activity because it requires scarce resources and it produces something of value. This paper deals with five questions related to the role of agricultural research. It begins with some estimates of the growth and magnitude of agricultural research throughout the world and in Latin America and some observations on the increases in agricultural productivity from this research. It then considers what is a very important question, namely, who should pay for agricultural research? The third section deals with the organizational quandary. Finally two brief sections, related to the harm that is done to agricrultural research by the distortions in agricultural prices and a comment on the function of research entrepreneurship.
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Article provided by Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. in its journal Cuadernos de Economía.