Agricultural science in the public domain is increasingly being asked to do more with less

If breeders can increase their imported genetic materials by 10 percent, the marginal cost of wheat variety production will fall by 2.2 percent .Such an effect, a type of spillin, has long been known to play an important role in the effectiveness of spending on agricultural research . Our study demonstrates that spillins are also an …

The systems approach has several important implications for second generation models

While there was a sense that “decision support” was important, the model developments nevertheless began with research tools that were motivated primarily to better understand basic processes and effects on system performance. As long as model development is motivated primarily by academic and research outcomes, it will remain only loosely connected to user needs. Therefore, …