AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS – ROLE IN POLICY

RESEARCH

K.N. Ravi Kumar

Associate Professor (Agricultural Economics)
Agricultural College, Mahanandi
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
<drknrk@gmail.com>

‘Agricultural Economist’ is one of the important stakeholders in

agricultural development process of the country. Their activities in
policy research include generation/refinement of agricultural
technologies and their economic evaluation. In the modern era of
agriculture, with the participation of the country in World Trade
Organization, their role is much widened and they are working in close
with association Agricultural Extension Specialists towards the
dissemination of agricultural technologies to the farmers. They are also
playing a constructive role in strengthening the inter-sectoral linkages
by involving all the stakeholders’ viz., Government agencies, NGOs,
private sector (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery companies etc),
farmers’ organizations, experts from national and international
organizations etc. This facilitates to generate/refine the agricultural
technologies suiting to different farming situations and also helps to
identify new researchable areas for the future. The research and the
policy suggestions that are going to be executed in the future in the
identified prioritized areas will drive the economy in the right direction
suiting to the global trends. As the capital investments both from
public and private sources showed declining trend in the recent period,
the role of Agricultural Economists in guiding for efficient utilization of
resources both in production and marketing programmes is
indispensable. They play a vital role in selecting the best portfolio of
research activities through prioritization of researchable issues. The
policy guidelines formulated by the Government either at
National/State level involves the suggestions offered by the
Economists, as they look into the livelihood security, poverty
alleviation, employment generation and sustainability perspectives of
the farming community.
 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS – ROLE IN POLICY
RESEARCH

K.N. Ravi Kumar*

‘Agricultural Economist’ is one of the important stakeholders in

agricultural development process of the country. Their involvement in
policy research ranges from developing the technologies to their
economic evaluation at the farmers’ level. They also play a central role
in refining the agricultural technologies relevant to the different
farming situations. The economic evaluation of the technologies and
estimation of their technical feasibility at the field level will guide the
farmers in adopting them. Their association with other Scientists in
collaborative research will lead to policy planning either at
National/State level. Their activities in policy research contribute
significantly towards the livelihood security of the farmers and to
sustain them in the farm business. With the participation of the country
in trade liberalization, the role of Agricultural Economists is much
widened, so as to make the domestic farmers really dynamic in the
competitive world situation. Their approach was also changed towards
concentrating on the farmers’ livelihood scenario and to improve upon
the same by alleviating the poverty rather than mere evaluation of the
generated technologies. This approach has brought down some
desirable changes in the economies of developing countries like India,
where the policy parameters were mainly planned to alleviate poverty
situation in the country. These policies were effective in two ways viz.,
adoption of cost-effective production technologies and efficient
marketing strategies. Their role was found more crucial now, with the
advent of modern technologies and increased foreign direct
investments in agricultural research. The research findings of the
Economists, if found reliable by the donors, will have a strong bearing
on the access for the future research projects and this also facilitates
to win their confidence in better execution of the projects. During the
fifties and sixties, the contributions of Economists in the country were
mainly related to the dissemination of production technologies to the
farmers to increase their agricultural production. During seventies and
eighties, ie., after realizing the benefits of Green Revolution, their
approach was changed towards economic evaluation of generated
technologies and their contributions towards achieving food security to
the mounting population. From early nineties (in the liberalized
regime), their execution of
* : Associate Professor (Agricultural Economics), Agricultural
College, Mahanandi, Acharya
N.G. Ranga Agricultural University

research was totally re-oriented and they are playing the central role
in executing, evaluating, suggesting and disseminating the cost-
effective production and marketing technologies. Moreover, they are
functioning in collaborative research projects in close association with
other Scientists (of different disciplines) such that, policy measures can
be suggested for the selected project area as a whole. With the
increased disbursement of financial resources to the farmers-
beneficiaries through financial institutions, their role assumed greater
significance in shifting the farming community towards taking up
profitable enterprises in the priority areas. Further, their accountability
was also increased with the participation in project mode of activities.
The various roles executed by the Agricultural Economists in policy
research are clearly depicted through figure 1.
Planning research design, execution and evaluation
Agricultural Economists play a very vital role in execution of the
Projects through planning the proper research design. Their
contribution towards identification and planning of need based
research projects is immense. In the modern era, for identification of
the projects, the Economists often use research prioritization as an
 important tool, as it ensures more resource use efficiency and better
economic results (in the prioritized area) to the farming community. In
identification of the project area, for execution of the Project, they will
play a crucial role towards the justification of socio-economic
background of the farmers-beneficiaries. They also contribute towards
identification and sharing of ideas and technicalities with other
stakeholders in the project area. The discussions with the stakeholders
through participatory mode will help to identify and generate new
technologies or refine the existing technologies relevant to different
farming situations under consideration. The data generated from
primary and secondary sources and its analytical presentation will
explain the system ‘why it is’ and this paves the path for re-orientation
of the system on the desired lines. The evaluation of the existing
scenario and formulation of strategies to achieve the desired/likelihood
scenario in an identified prioritized area will need the contributions
from Agricultural Economists, as economic evaluation of technologies
is the most important criterion essential at the farmers-beneficiaries
level.
Intermediary role between co-scientists and farmers-
beneficiaries in collaborative research projects

With the changes occurring in conducting the research from

programme mode to project mode, the role of Economists increased
tremendously. In general, collaborative
1.
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2. Preparation &
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3. Technical
4. co-
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Generation/refinem
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6. Improving
5. Stabilizing ent, farmers-
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 Figure 1 : Roles of Agricultural Economists in policy
research
research projects are multi-disciplinary and the Economists have to
work with other scientists towards achieving the common goals and
objectives. Their role is to validate the research findings of the
technological interventions executed by the co-scientific group through
economic means and to recommend the same to the farmers-
beneficiaries, if found profitable. If not, they suggest the co-scientific
group, what the farmers-beneficiaries and other stakeholders actually
perceive from the on-going research activities relevant to different
farming situations. This intermediary role between the co-scientific
group and farmers-beneficiaries/stakeholders indicate their importance
in generation and dissemination of technologies, as perceived by the
farmers and other grass-root level functionaries. Besides this, they also
involve in organization of farmers’ groups for quick knowledge
dissemination. Their continuous interactions with the other
stakeholders also benefit the collaborative projects to function very
smoothly and timely.
Identification of farmers-beneficiaries and other stakeholders
For executing the policy research, proper identification of
farmers-beneficiaries and other stakeholders, who influence the
agricultural development process at the grass-root level is very
important. In this context, the Economists will play the critical role.
They select the farmers-beneficiaries based on several criteria viz.,
socio-economic status, age group, gender, farming situations, crops
and allied enterprises practiced, progressiveness, managerial abilities,
linkages with scientific community, feed back system etc., such that,
the policy guidelines generated from the research benefit the farming
community on large-scale. Of course, due to spill-in and spill-over
effects of the technologies and due to the favourable policy guidelines,
the benefits accrue to all sections of the society both directly and
indirectly.
Inter-sectoral linkages for policy formulation research
Agricultural Economists play a constructive role in strengthening
and promoting the inter-sectoral linkages for formulation of sound
policy research. They facilitates the active involvement of all the
stakeholders viz, Government agencies, NGOs, private sector (seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, machinery companies etc), farmers’
organizations, experts from national and international organizations
etc., towards the generation and dissemination of policy oriented
technologies. They will play a very vital role in bringing all the
stakeholders on a common platform for sharing the ideas and
knowledge relating to the policy research. Their approach towards
promoting inter-sectoral linkages deserves special attention in the
modern era, as agricultural research orientation shifted from supply
driven to demand driven. In such demand driven research orientation
scenario, the inter-sectoral linkages directly contribute towards the
generation and dissemination of technologies very quickly. Here, the
role of Economists is very critical in selecting the best portfolio of
research activities, selection of resource-poor farmers-beneficiaries for
generating reliable information, identification of donors for funding
research activities, strengthening research-extension-farmer linkages,
efficient utilization of resources etc. Thus, Economists involves in
driving the agricultural research on the modern lines and suiting to the
farmers’ needs.
Farm to Table Management
There is a growing priority to generate cost-effective production
and marketing strategies in agri-business. This implies, input
management and output management are the important aspects to be
dealt with to benefit the farming community. This is especially true,
with the participation of the country in World Trade Organization
(WTO). Input management, in the sense that, accessing the farming
community towards the use of critical inputs in the production
programmes at cost-effectiveness and similarly output management
refers to, guiding the farming community for marketing their
produce/products very efficiently either in domestic or international
markets. Here, the role of Economists is very important in guiding the
farmers to promote the comparative advantage for their products in
the international market. In the WTO regime, the Agricultural
Economists are also guiding the farmers to go for scientific post-
harvest management of the produce. They emphasize particularly on
the value addition of produce, as processed products had higher
market demand in the international market, particularly in the
developed nations. Besides this, food safety mechanism also deserves
special attention, as it promotes good reputation for the country in the
international market. They also play a major role in disseminating the
quality standards of products among the different market
functionaries. Further they identifies specialized markets for different
products and specific quality specifications (product-wise) for each
country, such that, more exports can be made from the country. They
will also play an important role in resolving the differences in quality
standards of various products across the countries, such that, smooth
trading relationships exists between the member nations of WTO.
Based on the profitability scenarios of various agricultural
commodities/products both in domestic and international markets, as
estimated by the Economists under normal and risky situations, policy
guidelines can be drawn by the Government regarding the crop-shift
analysis. This, in turn, lead the agricultural sector for earning due
share in the international market.
Dual role
Agricultural Economists play dual role in conducting the policy
research, one as a ‘researcher’ in generating the technologies (usually
in association with other scientists) and the other as an ‘evaluator’ in
studying the economic viability, technical feasibility and implications of
generated technologies at the grass-root level. The economic
evaluation of technologies is very important, as it forms the basis for
recommending the policy suggestions to the farmers-beneficiaries. In
the recent period, their role was further extended towards
dissemination of generated and evaluated technologies to all the
stakeholders in close association with Agricultural Extension
specialists. This enabled the Economists to conduct impact assessment
studies of the generated technologies and suggest the cost-effective
technologies to the farmers. This active sharing of information, ideas
and knowledge with the farmers and other stakeholders facilitate
congenial environment towards quick dissemination of
generated/refined technologies and also helps to identify the new
researchable issues for the future. The research and the policy
suggestions that are going to be executed in the future in the
identified prioritized areas will drive the economy in the right direction
suiting to the global trends.

Conclusions
To conclude, the role of Agricultural Economists in policy
research is very vital, as indicated by their contributions in economic
evaluation and dissemination of generated/refined technologies to the
farmers-beneficiaries. Their role found to be more significant in the
modern era of agriculture, as the capital investments both from public
and private sources declined in the recent period. This calls for
efficient utilization of resources both in production and marketing
programmes, where the active role of Agricultural Economists is
indispensable. The policy guidelines formulated by the Government
either at National/State level involves the suggestions offered by the
Economists, as they look into the livelihood security, poverty
alleviation, employment generation and sustainability perspectives of
the farming community.