IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/267317.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness And Efficiency Of Experts: An Evaluation Of Agricultural Economists

Author

Listed:
  • Groenewald, J. A.

Abstract

The main challenge for agricultural economists is effectiveness rather than efficiency. Effectiveness is the channeling of resources and efforts to those endeavours rendering the highest returns. Efficiency is the extent lo which it is done well. Agricultural economists should be system directed problem solvers. Failures to clearly recognize interactions between levels or activities in the total system cause expensive problems. Effectiveness requires such recognition aimed at improving human welfare. Grave inequitahilities occur in South African agriculture and food consumption. Production and consumption are both dualistic, without agricultural economists analyzing inequitabilities meaningfully. They have been effective neither in dealing with problems of commercial agriculture nor with the macro environment in a holistic sense, nor with institutions, nor with consumption economics. The already low effectiveness has been further decreased by some tool-oriented research. In South Africa, effectiveness implies more accent on problem-solving analysis: adaptive and maintenance research. Efficiency requires use of appropriate logic, analytical tools and data. It has lately been lowered by overemphasis on so-called elegant analytical tools and simultaneously, neglect in proper data collection. A reorientation is needed in this respect.

Suggested Citation

  • Groenewald, J. A., 1990. "Effectiveness And Efficiency Of Experts: An Evaluation Of Agricultural Economists," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 29(4), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:267317
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.267317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267317/files/07-Groenewald.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267317/files/07-Groenewald.pdf?subformat=pdfa
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.267317?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Batie, Sandra S., 1989. "Sustainable Development: Challenges to the Profession of Agricultural Economics," 1989 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 2, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 270686, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Luther Tweeten, 1983. "Hypotheses Testing in Economic Science," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 65(3), pages 548-552.
    3. James T. Bonnen, 1986. "A Century of Science in Agriculture: Lessons for Science Policy," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1065-1080.
    4. Bonnen, James T., 1986. "A Century Of Science In Agriculture: Lessons For Science Policy," 1986 Annual Meeting, July 27-30, Reno, Nevada 278406, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. C. E. Bishop, 1967. "The Urbanization of Rural America: Implications for Agricultural Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 49(5), pages 999-1008.
    6. Sandra S. Batie, 1989. "Sustainable Development: Challenges to Profession of Agricultural Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(5), pages 1083-1101.
    7. Irving Hoch, 1984. "Retooling the Mainstream," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(5), pages 793-797.
    8. Kassier, W E & Groenewald, J A, 1990. "The Agricultural Economy of South Africa," 1990 Symposium, Agricultural Restructuring in Southern Africa, July 24-27, 1990, Swakopmund, Namibia 183486, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Klonsky, Karen & Doye, Damona, 1990. "The Role of the Extension Economist in Interdisciplinary Programs," 1990 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Vancouver, Canada 270862, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Madhu Khanna, 2022. "Breakthroughs at the disciplinary nexus: Rewards and challenges for applied economists," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(2), pages 475-492, March.
    3. Davis, Carlton George & Langham, Max R., 1995. "Agricultural Industrialization And Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 27(01), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Nieuwoudt, W. L., 1992. "Agricultural Policy Research: Some Thoughts Concerning Methodology And Technology," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 31(01), March.
    5. Richard E. Just & Gordon C. Rausser, 1989. "An Assessment of the Agricultural Economics Profession," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(5), pages 1177-1190.
    6. Ben Yu & Daigee Shaw & Tsu-Tan Fu & Lawrence Lai, 2000. "Property rights and contractual approach to sustainable development," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 3(3), pages 291-309, September.
    7. Kevin N. Griffith & Lawrence M. Scheier, 2013. "Did We Get Our Money’s Worth? Bridging Economic and Behavioral Measures of Program Success in Adolescent Drug Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-28, November.
    8. Gupta, Suraksha & Kumar, V., 2013. "Sustainability as corporate culture of a brand for superior performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 311-320.
    9. Skees, Jerry R. & Reed, Michael R., 1988. "The Restructuring of Southern Agriculture: Data Needs for Economic and Policy Research," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 33-40, July.
    10. Paul Webster, 1999. "The Challenge of Sustainability at the Farm Level: Presidential Address," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 371-387, September.
    11. Bonnen, James T., 1996. "Land Grant Universities Are Changing," Staff Paper Series 11554, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    12. Batie, Sandra S., 1992. "Sustainable Development: Concepts and Strategies," 1991 Conference, August 22-29, 1991, Tokyo, Japan 183363, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Agricultural Economics Association of Southern Africa, 1990. "Levsa Nuusmeasa News," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 29(2), June.
    14. Park, J. & Seaton, R. A. F., 1996. "Integrative research and sustainable agriculture," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 81-100.
    15. Deaton, Brady J., 1996. "What is Agricultural Economics? A View From University Administration," AAEA Miscellaneous Paper Archive 337283, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Bulti Merga & Jema Haji, 2024. "Factors Impeding Effective Crop Production in Ethiopia," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(10), pages 1-98, April.
    17. Maurizio Grillenzoni & Maurizio Canavari, 2005. "Sustainable Development In Metropolitan Areas: An Introduction," Others 0506003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Kathleen Segerson & Catherine L. Kling & Nancy E. Bockstael, 2022. "Contributions of women at the intersection of agricultural economics and environmental and natural resource economics," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 38-53, March.
    19. Schmid, A. Allan & Soroko, David, 1997. "Interest groups, selective incentives, cleverness, history and emotion: The case of the American Soybean Association," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 267-285, February.
    20. Azam khatibi, 2015. "The Effect of University Establishment on Economic, Cultural, and Social Development in Iranian Cities," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(2), pages 97-112, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:267317. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.