Inducción de innovaciones y desarrollo agropecuario argentino

Abstract

We attempt in this paper to provide some alternative explanation of the controversial issue of the stagnation in the Argentine Agricultural Sector. We approach the problem in a new perspective "going back" in the production process and trying to identify the factors underlying the demand and supply of agricultural innovations by public and private institutions, and the adoption of the new technology by the farmer. The prevalence of a situation of technological stagnation is conceptualized through the existence of a gap between latent and actual demand for innovations. A dynamic mechanism of generation-adoption of technologies will eventually bridge the gap between latent and actual demand, in land induced technological "treadmill", which will impose a coercitive element of change in interaction with the market mechanism and the behavior of profit seekers farmers. The action of this technological "treadmill", essentially of a long run nature, could be accelerated by some measures of economic policy, such as a land tax scheme, an orientation of the research towards land saving technologies, and a consistent price policy directed towards the inputs embodying these innovations.