AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF COTTON AND PEANUT RESEARCH IN SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Table 6: IRR Trends in Cotton and Peanut Research over Time

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Publicly funded agricultural research contributes to growth in agricultural productivity by
reducing the real cost of food production through the advancement of output enhancing
technology. Improvements in output enhancing technology include improvements in usage or
quality of inputs that make production more efficient. The theory is that not only does
investment in research contribute to improvements in production, but also that consumers and
producers benefit as a result and there is a positive return on that investment. This study makes
an effort to add empirical content to the economic theory that research in agriculture contributes
to agricultural production by examining the specific case of cotton and peanuts in the
southeastern region of the United States for the period from 1963-1995.

Assume broad societal goals of efficiency are aimed at the well being of the economy.
For the research system of cotton and peanuts, the goals are to improve the total average of well
being to producers and consumers taken in the aggregate. Public investment in agricultural

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