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Show initiative and ingenuity of the innovative farmers. All arise! WHO REALLY BENEFITS FROM AGRI. RESEARCH Will the real benefactor of agricultural researih please stand up! To name the benefactor, Paul GrinVshaw, Extension economist econo-mist and associate dean of agriculture, agri-culture, Utah State University ;ays we must consider who pays for and who receives the benefits from agriculture research. re-search. Mcst everyone agrees on the answer to the first part of the , question. Private individual? and industry with a particular interest pay part of the bill, but the majority of funding comes from public revenue That means almost everyone all taxpayers pay for agricultural agricul-tural research. Some people believe that farmers far-mers do and should capture tor themselves the total gains from increased agricultural efficiency ef-ficiency that applied research-acquired research-acquired knowledge makes possible. pos-sible. But economists point out that things don't work out thai way in a competitive system., The gains from increased efficiency effic-iency achieved in various sectors sec-tors get disseminated generally throughout the economy. Consequently, Con-sequently, as Don Paarlberg di-lector di-lector of agricultural economics, econo-mics, U. S. Department of Agriculture Ag-riculture points out, the chief gainer from increased agricultural agricul-tural efficiency is the consumer. Essentially, this means that almost al-most everyone receives the benefits from agricultural research. re-search. And since consumers are the primary beneficiaries, he notes that it is inappropriate in our accounting to charge agriculture with the whole cost of agricultural research. Paarlberg eplained: under our competitive system, improvements im-provements in the techniques of agricultural production result re-sult in lowered costs per unit. This has the effect of stimulating stimulat-ing a greater supply that, in turn, brings a lower price. The consumers and the innovated farmers benefit, but the farmers farm-ers who cannot, or will not adapt the new technology are adversely affected. He cited the broiler industry as a prime example of this effect. The average American spends only 16 Vz percent of his aftertax after-tax income for food. He is the real beneficiary of the agricultural agricul-tural progress made possible by research and the associated |