Agricultural Economics Research and Analysis Needs Mission Clarification

摘要

A systematic and well organized program of agricultural economics research is needed to monitor and assess the health of the food-agriculture sector and the effectiveness of farm policies and programs. However, within the agricultural community there is disagreement on the roles of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service and the land-grant institutions' departments of agricultural economics. The emphasis of the Service's work has changed from farm management studies to broad agricultural issues, and its mission is not clear. During the past few years the Service has performed socioeconomic research, which GAO believes is questionable from a subject matter perspective, while other priority research and analysis needs have not been given adequate attention. Little has been done to plan for, prioritize, and coordinate agricultural economics research and analysis. GAO makes appropriate recommendations.