Minister of Agriculture (now resigned), the agricul-
tural sector of Colombia was completely restructured.
This restructuring must be viewed as a truly revolu-
tionary reorganization of public institutions serving
agriculture. Perhaps; it is significant to note that this
structuring of the institutions serving agriculture was
Strictly a Colombian innovation with no inputs from
technical assistance personnel, advisors, nor adminis-
trators. On the other hand, it should be noted that
personnel trained under the auspices of the various
external assistance programs remain in key adminis-
trative positions in the new organization. Thus, the
scientific administrative skills acquired over the years
by these workers will not be lost in the new institu-
tional arrangement.
The role of the University and other Institutions in
economic, social and political development is a much
discussed subject, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Consideration of whether or not Colombian Univer-
sities and agricultural institutions are a vital force
generating change and transformation of the country
is beyond the scope of this discussion. However, it
has been argued that agricultural economists and
other scientists in the U.S. are becoming increasingly
discipline oriented rather than problem or objective
oriented [22]. If this is the case, and the evidence is
convincing, it may not be particularly serious in the
U.S. with its abundant resources and sophisticated
infrastructureslinking public and private agencies to
public affairs decisionmaking. However, this is not a
trend to be exported to developing countries where
such linkages are poorly developed.
CONTRACT STAFFING PATTERNS
Despite university emphasis on institutional build-
ing in other countries, Land Grant institutions have
been somewhat less than successful in institutional-
izing international development activities within their
own campus settings, Even in 1970, there are an
extremely limited number of career-related inter-
national development opportunities available in the
USA agricultural establishment. To my knowledge,
there is no development in the Land Grant system
that parallels, for example, the Harvard Development
Advisory Service.
Perhaps the typical person with international
experience may be an individual who has taken a two-
year leave of absence from his own institution to
work for another university contract abroad. Thus,
typically he has had Httle or no SpeciaUzed profes-
sional preparation for an overseas assignment, particu-
larly as it relates to institutional building in a
different setting. Further, when he returns to his
home institution his domestic duties are seldom even
periphera∏y related to his overseas assignment. Thus,
from the standpoint of the individual, the inter-
national assignment is often noncareer related and
noncareer Continuous. From the standpoint of the
university, the structure is not present to permit the
staff members’ newly-gained insights to contribute to
ongoing university activities.
The Colombian program is a very large one and
which few institutions could staff with permanent
faculty members from their own university. This, of
course, was the basis for the MASUA consortion on
the Colombian project. Although several strong
agricultural co∏eges are included among the con-
sortion numbers (Nebraska, Kansas State, Oklahoma
State, Missouri, Iowa State and Colorado), and that
the original concept was that of permanent faculty of
the MASUA institutions performing the technical
assistance duties in Colombia, the project to date has
not been primarily staffed by permanent faculty of
the MASUA member Universities. A somewhat crude
summary of staffing patterns, to date, is contained in
Tablel.
Little has been written relative to optimum size of
technical assistance teams. Perhaps, the range in size
should be between that which constitutes a critical
mass and that which tends to result in a program
effort essentially independent of country programs
and institutions. When thé team is small, it is probab-
ly easier for the group to work within an institution
and with nationals. As the team becomes larger, given
language and cultural barriers, there may be a tenden-
cy to create enclaves within the national institution
with goals and objectives only loosely related to those
of the host institution. Such a development may well
result in exce∏ent research but in little upgrading of
national personnel or institutional capacity to per-
form when the technical assistance team leaves.
In the plant sciences, ICA and National University
had the capacity to absorb a large technical assistance
team. Yet, even in this area, this ratio of technical
assistance personnel was probably high relative to
successful RockefeHer experience in Mexico, and
certainly in Colombia. In agricultural economics, the
original staffing plan involved five senior professors
and three post prelim instructors. In retrospect, the
program in Bogota may have been overstaffed initial-
ly. At that time, there was only one Colombian in the
Bogota program with the M.S. degree.
BUILDING RESEARCH COMPETENCE
Most would agree that a necessary ingredient of
agricultural development is significant technological
breakthroughs which can be developed only by a
strong program of adaptive agricultural research. This
is a major shift in thinking from the early 1950’s
when most would have argued that ample technology
was available, but that a strong extension program to
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