Challenges for Agricultural and
Applied Economics Programs:
Market Niches and Critical Success Factors
Robert P. King
Department of Applied Economics
University of Minnesota
National Association of Agricultural
Economics Administrators
Washington DC
September 9, 2011
Introduction
• Declining public sector support for higher
education
• Declining public sector investments in
agricultural and social science research
• Sense that the “ag” brand may be too
narrow for our faculty and students
• Dramatic turnover of faculty and agency
staff due to retirements
Introduction
• Strategic challenges and opportunities go
far beyond departmental names.
• Discussion will center on three basic
activity areas:
– undergraduate teaching
– research and graduate programs
– outreach
• We’ll also talk about opportunities for
regional/national collaboration.
Undergraduate Teaching
• Key Challenges
– Increasing enrollment
• more offerings
• larger sections
• serving majors vs. service courses
– Staffing courses
• retirements of key people
• economics training vs. business training
Undergraduate Teaching
• Environmental Factors
– Capped enrollment vs. growing enrollment
– Strengths and strategies of competing
programs
• Economics Department
• Business School
– Strengths and strategies of “home” college
– Degree to which home university has an
agricultural orientation
Undergraduate Teaching
• Strategies - Enrollment
– Grow the major
– Grow a minor
• service to students in home college
• service to students across the university – here name
matters
– Partner with Economics or Business
– Partner with emerging interdisciplinary
programs
Undergraduate Teaching
• Strategies - Staffing
– Increase teaching loads
– Adjunct faculty
• department’s own retirees
• local Ph.D. economists
– Graduate students
• teaching assistants
• instructors
Much will depend on university budget
model and competitive environment.
Research and Graduate
Programs
• Key Challenges
– Declining (or already non-existent) support
funds
– Declining pools of competitive grant funds
– Increased emphasis on funding for
interdisciplinary, cross-institutional projects
– Rising cost of graduate student support as
tuition increases
Research and Graduate
Programs
• Environmental Factors
– Structure and strength of state support for
agricultural research
– National/international reputation of home
university
– Distribution of economists across other units
in home university
– Collegiate home of Economics Department
Research and Graduate
Programs
• Strategies - Research
– Partnerships
• Intra-collegiate multidisciplinary partnerships
• Intra-university multidisciplinary partnerships
• Multi-university partnerships of agricultural and applied
economics faculty
– Incentives
• Centers
• Nine month appointments
• Allocation of ICR funds to faculty who generate them
Research and Graduate
Programs
• Strategies – Graduate Programs
– Agricultural Economics
– Joint with Economics Department
– Expand to include other applied economists
outside of Economics Department
– Grow M.S. program
• agribusiness focus
• economic analyst focus
Outreach
• Key Challenges
– Shrinking traditional clientele
– Competition from other educational service
providers
– Rapidly declining resources
– Attracting talent
– Promotion and tenure
Outreach
• Environmental Factors
– Current and projected organization of field
staff … their links with department
– Size of state … diversity of state economy
– Integration of teaching, research, and
outreach in “home” college
– Flexibility in appointment splits
Outreach
• Strategies
– Exploit complementarities between extension
teaching and undergraduate programs
– Foster strong research/extension teams
within faculty
• Win-win for promotion and tenure
• More competitive for integrated research and extension
competitive grants
Outreach
• Strategies
– Outreach/Research Centers
•
•
•
•
Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business
Michigan State Center for Economic Analysis
Florida Agricultural market Research Center
Texas A&M Agribusiness, Food & Consumer Economics
Research Center
Can these be organized regionally?
Regional/National Collaboration
• Regional or national collaboration may
become the new normal. Here are just a
few possibilities
– Regional or national groups of economists to
take the lead on major NIFA proposals
– Regional or national graduate courses on
specialized topics … distance delivery or
summer short courses
– Regional extension programs
Breakout Discussions
• Group by region.
• Share ideas and strategies that have
worked in each activity area.
• Explore opportunities for regional or
national collaboration.
• Report back up to four “actionable”
ideas.