A graphical method for relating multiple socio-economic goals to research and development objectives in agriculture

A quantitative graphical method is presented that identifies a set of technologies within an agricultural production sector that best serves a number of socio-economic goals. Technical research objectives that are derived from this set of technologies can be used by agricultural R&D policy planners as a guide when deciding on the selection and encouragement of specific research programmes.The application of this approach is illustrated with an example from sheep husbandry and wheat cultivation in a semi-arid zone in Israel. It is shown that the set of socio-economically viable technologies includes some of those that are applicable today as well as those that require more research. Despite the fact that some technologies do not meet all the goal criteria, they are currently applied for various reasons.It is suggested that the approach developed here can serve to bridge a communication gap between the agricultural development administration and the research establishment when evaluating agricultural R&D policy. It can also be used to determine the socio-economic limits to technological development in a given situation.