like technological advance, institutional progress and
improvements in the human agent, is a necessary com-
ponent of agricultural progress.
 We concentrate in this report on technological ad-
vance and on related advances necessary to get new
technologies created and used. Suggestions are offered
for research on institutions, human development and
capital accumulation to take advantage of the techno-
logical research. This report, however, is not balanced.
It deals only with the institutional, human develop-
ment and capital accumulation research necessary to
take advantage of technological advances. It does not
adequately treat the need for research on institutions,
human resources and additional capital. Research on
these subjects is required to attain objectives other than
the creation of new technology. Agricultural research
has more to contribute to the well-being of society than
just the creation of new technologies.


 Categories of Agricultural Research

 Three broad categories of agricultural research can
be distinguished and are discussed here: disciplinary
(DISC), subject-matter (SM) and problem-solving
(PS).

Disciplinary Research
 This is research designed to improve a discipline,
such as biochemistry, economics, genetics, sociology,
cell microbiology or physics. DISC research improves
the basic theory of a discipline, contributes knowledge
and measurements of the phenomena of interest to it
and improves the techniques available to it. DISC
research can be of either known or unknown relevance.
Agriculture is dependent on relevant advances in the
biological, physical and social science disciplines and in
the humanistic disciplines, as well.

Subject-Matter Research
 This is multidisciplinary research on a subject of im-
portance to a relatively well defined set of decision
makers facing a relatively well defined set of practical
problems in the real world. If research on such a sub-
ject is not multidisciplinary, it becomes relevant DISC
research. By decision makers we refer to the farmers,
homemakers, experiment station directors, govern-
mental officials and others who decide on solutions for
the everyday practical private and public problems of
agriculture and food. SM research is done to produce
and organize multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge for
the use of sets of such decision makers.
 It is important to distinguish this type of research
from disciplinary and problem-solving research


because their objectives, financing and administrative
requirements are substantially different. Failure to
realize these differences is at the heart of many of the
ARE's difficulties with its public image, funding and
internal administration. Most departments in colleges
of agriculture are multidisciplinary SM departments.
In a sense, such departments are more like institutes
than the disciplines of traditional universities.
Agronomy, for instance, provides information about
soils and crops useful to rather well defined sets of
farmers tackling problems involving production of cer-
tain crops. Agronomy departments are not specialized
in a single discipline. Instead, they are
multidisciplinary and typically include scientists with
disciplinary skills in chemistry, physics, genetics,
statistics, plant physiology, bacteriology and
economics, to list only a few of the disciplines that con-
tribute to the SM research and teaching of an
agronomy department. Similar conclusions can be
reached about animal science, agricultural economics
and horticulture departments. One of the earmarks of
SM departments is that they are multidisciplinary.

 Another distinction is that SM research seldom
generates information sufficient in and of itself to solve
a specific problem faced by any of the decision makers
being served. The typical decision maker ordinarily
supplements information generated by SM research
with other information to solve a specific problem. A
farmer, for instance, using the results of agronomic
research to solve a crop rotation problem, typically has
to supplement such research results with knowledge
about prices, markets, his machinery and equipment,
his livestock program and the availability of his labor,
as well as that of his family and hired persons.



Problem-Solving Research
 The USDA/agricultural college establishment has
responsibility for conducting much problem-solving
(PS) research and extension work. Such work typically
focuses on a specific problem faced by a specific deci-
sion maker or set of decision makers. For example,
dairy farmers in Michigan a few years ago needed to
find a more labor-efficient way of handling milk. The
problem was solved by a combination of agricultural
engineers, dairy husbandry specialists, economists and
bacteriologists. Their combined work produced dairy
production systems involving combinations of bulk
milk tanks, greatly improved "herringbone" milking
parlors, facilities for handling feeds and animal wastes,
and buildings for housing dairy animals, all adapted to
help solve the problem of using labor more efficiently
on Michigan farms. Problem-solving research, like SM
research, is multidisciplinary.