Technology transfer, public policy, and the cooperative extension service-OMB imbroglio

The Cooperative Extension Service, although widely cited as an exemplary technology transfer system for its documented contributions to increases in agricultural productivity, is confronting a number of challenges. Recent presidential budgets propose a narrowing of federal responsibilities for Extension to programs related to the transfer of agricultural technology. At the same time, the relevance of its traditional organizational structure to the technical needs of contemporary agriculture has been questioned. Extension's ability simultaneously to correct what it perceives to be a narrow view of its mission as well as to improve its performance as a technology transfer system is constrained by several things. One of these is its need to provide the diverse set of services demanded by the broad constituency that comprises its political base of support. Another is the gradual change in its own internal norms towards an educational information dissemination orientation away from an emphasis on adaptive research and technical problem-solving.