SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
JULY, 1985
HUMAN CAPITAL NEEDS OF BLACK LAND-GRANT
INSTITUTIONS
Alfred L. Parks and Richard D. Robbins
There is a growing concern among leaders
of our nation about the impending human
capital shortage in agriculture. The United
States, a nation that leads the world in the
production of agricultural products, is seri-
ously threatened by deepening shortages of
highly qualified scientists, managers, and
technical professionals—including agricul-
tural economists. The U.S. agricultural sys-
tem, which contributes some 20 percent to
the nation’s gross national product, 23 per-
cent to the nation’s employment, and 19
percent of export earnings, increasingly in-
tegrates advanced technologies and intensive
capital investment (Bicentennial Commit-
tee) . This challenge was dramatized in a forum
entitled, “Investing in Brain Power: Keeping
U.S. Agriculture’s Competitive Edge,” jointly
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture and the National Research Council’s
Board on Agriculture. At that conference, in
framing the challenge to the group, John
Block, Secretary of Agriculture, called for a
closer working relationship between aca-
deme, industry, and government to “help
short circuit a growing concern before it
becomes a fullfledge problem. ” Block fur-
ther stated that the concern was “to ensure
that our industry has both the quantity and
quality Ofscientists and professionals avail-
able to meet our future needs. ’’
The purpose of this paper is to address
some of the problems of human capital short-
ages within the agricultural sector, within
the agricultural economics profession, and
within the historically black land-grant in-
stitutions. Much of this paper is devoted to
addressing some of the concern about the
increasing shortages of agricultural expertise.
A considerable amount of time is devoted to
the labor market conditions for agricultural
economists and finally, attention is given to
the theoretical issues relating to the seg-
mented labor markets of black agricultural
economists and the black land-grant insti-
tutions.
SUPPLY∕DEMAND RELATIONSHIPS OF
AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS
An examination of the supply∕demand re-
lationships of agricultural scientists reveals
that there is growing evidences of deficits of
college-educated agricultural scientists. Sur-
veys by Coulter and Stanton (1980, 1983),
the Resident Instruction Committee of the
National Association of State Universities and
Land-Grant Colleges, and others, have pre-
dicted that quantity demanded will exceed
quantity supplied by as much as 50 percent
in some occupational areas, Table 1 and fig-
ures 1 and 2.
Figure 1. Supply/Demand Relationships for Recip-
ients of Agriculture and Agriculturally-Related De-
grees by Occupational Cluster, 1976-85.*
• Average annual supply expressed as a percentage of
average annual demand from 1976 through 1985. Oc-
cupational clusters are: 1) scientific and professional
specialists, 2) manufacturing and processing scientists
and engineers, 3) sales and service representatives and
purchasing agents, 4) administrators, managers, and fi-
nancial advisors, 5) educators, 6) media specialists, 7)
agricultural production and management specialists, and
8) miscellaneous agricultural specialists.
Alfred L. Parks is Chairman, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Prairie View A & M
University, and Richard D. Robbins is Chairman, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, North
Carolina A & T State University.
Invited paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, Biloxi,
Mississippi, February 3-6, 1985. Invited papers are routinely published in the July SJAE without editorial council
review but with review of the copy editor (as per Executive Committee action June 25, 1982).
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