Robert W. Herdt

Market Price Effects of Technological Change on Income Distribution in Semisubsistence Agriculture

The impact of a technologically induced rightward shift in the supply function of a commodity grown and partly consumed by semisubsistence farmers is examined. In closed-economy, free market situations, the distribution of economic gains between consumers and producers depends on the proportional shift of the supply function, proportion of the commodity marketed, and elasticities of demand and supply for the commodity. Differences in adoption and marketable surplus between large and small farmers result in differential benefits, but over a range of parameter values, small farmers gain as much or more than large farmers when supply shifts faster than demand.

The Contrasting Response of Rice to Nitrogen: India and the United States

Comparative study shows that the functional relationship between inorganic nitrogen application and rice yield is strikingly different in the United States as compared to India. As a result, the optimal level of fertilizer application and the financial returns to use of fertilizer are much lower under Indian conditions than American conditions. Since extensive enquiry suggests that this contrast is due to differences in the research input, it indicates the efficacy of substantial research effort in India in the biological sciences if fertilizer is to provide the basis for a substantial and continuous rate of growth of production.

The Contribution of International Agricultural Research to World Agriculture

The system of international agricultural research centers has played a facilitating role in promoting a diversity of biological and institutional innovations in the Third World. These include germplasm collections and enhancements, new varieties of crops, changed agricultural and farming systems practices, and improved policies and institutional arrangements affecting agricultural sectors and their research infrastructures. As these centers work in collaboration with national research systems, perhaps the most important induced effect has been in enhancing the human capital of people working in these systems in the developing countries.