Mobilizing support for agricultural research at the University of Minnesota

Underinvestment is a problem common to most agricultural institutions. This paper reviews the history of the Minnesota agricultural research system in order to outline possible methods which might help other research systems to build political support for investment in public agricultural research. The paper reviews the growth of Minnesota research institutions and their budgets, looks at the economic benefits derived from the research system, discusses the means through which the experiment station developed political support for its budget, and finally, discusses recent efforts to generate more support.

The major lessons are: (1) research institutions have to invest a substantial amount of time and money in generating political support for research; (2) the activities necessary to build such support include not only effective research programs, but also the capacity to publicize the results and to organize clientele into effective lobbyists for research; and (3) certain structures, such as the close integration of research and extension, the decentralization of research into branch stations, and advisory boards for the experiment stations, can be very helpful in mobilizing support.