Spurring Innovation in Food and Agriculture: A Review of the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Program by Committee on a Review of the USDA Agriculture & Food Research Initiative

Author:Committee on a Review of the USDA Agriculture & Food Research Initiative
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: The National Academies Press
Published: 2015-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

NOTE: The number in a given cell is the effect on the variable above of applying one more unit of the variable on the left. Roman numerals in parentheses are cell numbers.

Points A and B in Figure 4-3 show two alternative operating points on such a science production function. Per-unit output is the slope of the line drawn from the origin to AFRI’s operating point—A in the top diagram and B in the bottom diagram. In both cases, regardless of how much input is used, per-unit output is positive. Marginal output is the slope of the tangent to the production function at the operating point. That slope is highly sensitive to input level. Because in the top diagram the input is used moderately, marginal output is positive.7 In the bottom diagram, so much input is used that marginal output is negative: an additional input unit reduces output.

Principal-Investigator (Scope) Effects

No manager seeking to maximize output with given resources, or to minimize resources needed for a desired output, would accept less output in the face of additional input. Yet early evidence suggests that PI deployments in the average AFRI 2009–2010 projects seem to have been in such a situation. The rationale for adding PIs presumably was to broaden the scope of resources available to solve the problems addressed (e.g., in the variety of disciplines, subject matter, and laboratory and field information). But that added variety may exacerbate communication and coordination costs and use cash that could have been used more productively.

These additional coordination costs could be justified on several bases. One justification is that novel ideas and solutions emerge from collaborative research among disciplines and institutions. Truly interdisciplinary research of that nature requires understanding one another’s disciplinary language and challenges (NRC, 2004). The fact that, at sample means in 2009–2010, additional PI numbers had a negative journal-article effect suggests that coordination costs outweighed diversity and specialization benefits. Cummings and Kiesler (2007) showed similar findings in their study of the National Science Foundation’s Information Technology Research program. If in the longer term, however, especially large projects can be shown to produce more innovative or longer-lasting effects than possible without disciplinary integration, the shorter-term inefficiencies would be justified.

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