Agricultural constituencies and agricultural institutions in the United States: implications and obstacles for a needed reform

Summary Agricultural institutions such as the Land Grant System of the United States are under increasing pressure to accommodate to changing economic and political realities. Unfortunately, many institutions are using most of their energies in tactics to preserve the status quo rather than to induce innovations into the System. The author contends, as do Ruttan and Hayami, that institutions, like technology, must change if development and progress are to be assured. Administrators of agricultural institutions in the United States are open to criticism for internalising the process of resource allocation and for relying too much on traditional clients, whose economic and political powers are on the wane.