WERA_OLD72: Agribusiness Scholarship Emphasizing Competitiveness
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
WERA_OLD72: Agribusiness Scholarship Emphasizing Competitiveness
Duration: 10/01/2009 to 09/30/2014
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Statement of Issue(s) and Justification:
The field of Agribusiness may be defined as the study of economic and managerial problems, including private strategies and public policies, as they pertain to the global food and fiber system. The term agribusiness first appeared in Davis and Goldbergs seminal book titled A Concept of Agribusiness , which described three distinct yet interdependent sectors in a global food system. The sectors include suppliers of agricultural inputs, producers of agricultural commodities, and all institutions that perform the functional aspects associated with marketing food and fiber products. These include product exchange, processing, storage, and transportation, as well as suppliers of market information, risk management, and financial services related to product distribution. Fundamental to the concept of agribusiness is that many problems related to agricultural production are interrelated and dependent upon political and economic issues affecting the entire supply chain. This leads to the primary thesis of agribusiness scholarship, which postulates that many of the fundamental problems in the food and fiber supply chain are intrinsic to the interconnected and interdependent nature of the system. We adopt a broad definition of scholarship, one that includes the creation of knowledge through research that utilizes economic, management, finance, marketing and supporting methodologies albeit quantitative and / or qualitative - pertaining to problems in Agribusiness; the use of new teaching pedagogies as they pertain to educating undergraduate and graduate students in Agribusiness; as well as, development and implementation of industry outreach and extension programs that target managers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the agribusiness sector.
Fundamental issues in the food system include a myriad of economic and management problems inherent to the biological nature of food production, processing, distribution and consumption, as well as their implications for numerous private and public policies that affect decisions of agribusiness managers, investors and consumers. The WERA-72 Coordinating Committee plays an important role in facilitating and promoting agribusiness scholarship by providing a research and educational forum that focuses on fundamental issues in agribusiness. These issues include business competitiveness, strategic management, industrial organization, international trade, evaluation of business performance, analysis of consumer preferences, agricultural industrialization, transportation and logistics, supply chain management, traceability, food protection, and public policy as they pertain to the global food system.
In order to facilitate information exchange, the committee undertakes several activities including organization of an annual meeting at which the above issues and other timely topics are addressed. Participation in the project includes university faculty with research, extension, and teaching orientation. In addition, the group has enjoyed active participation from government and industry. Further, university participation has included \traditional land grant institutions as well as selected private universities that also have programs targeting the agribusiness sector. The coordination of publically and privately funded research, teaching and outreach programs is a unique contribution of WERA-72. We also encourage graduate students to participate as well, providing them with not only opportunities to discuss their research efforts and get constructive feed back from the group as a whole, but also opportunities to shape new directions for agribusiness scholarship.
Objectives
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To provide faculty from land-grant and other universities, and industry and government decision-makers a forum to interact, share information, and collaborate on research, teaching and extension programs as they pertain to food production, distribution and consumption, and a safe and sustainable food supply.
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To coordinate timely research, teaching and extension objectives of researchers and educators by drawing on the expertise of academic and industry professionals in the agribusiness system.
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To maintain and develop electronic communication methods to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information among industry, government, and academia in the agribusiness system.
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To improve the quality of agribusiness scholarship and enhance the effectiveness of coordinating committee participants by facilitating integrated and multi-state research and extension programs and greater access to extramural funds.
Procedures and Activities
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Coordination of research, extension, and teaching projects among faculty, graduate students, government, and industry leaders that result in publication of collective research and extension manuscripts. These will include peer-reviewed papers as well as popular press and trade publications.
- Strategies for multi-state research are expected to emerge that provide timely information to stakeholders in the agribusiness system.
- Increased quality of teaching and extension programs in agribusiness and economic development through collaboration in integrated and multi-state work.
- Cataloguing of completed and ongoing research and extension projects and products on the coordinating committees home page.
- Presentation and discussion of research findings at professional meetings. These include annual conferences of the Agricultural and Applied Economics and Regional Agricultural Economics Associations (e.g Western, Southern, etc.), and the Food Distribution Research Society. Presentations are also expected at industry conventions such as the National Grocers Association and the Produce Marketing Association.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
The annual meeting of the coordinating committee provides a forum for discussion and collaboration among participants and others interested in agribusiness issues. In addition to the published output from meeting presentations, the open forum enables participants to disseminate information via presentations at other professional meetings (including Western Agricultural Economics Association (WAEA), NCR-194, the Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS), and the Agriculture and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) as well as through extension programming conducted at participants institutions. Additionally many fact sheets are produced from the published referred research that put the more sophisticated research into a useable format for the general public.
Organization/Governance
The recommended Standard Governance for multistate research activities includes the election of a Chair, a Chair-elect, and a Secretary. All officers are to be elected for at least two-year terms to provide continuity. Administrative guidance will be provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a CSREES Representative. WERA-72 also hosts an annual meeting, which typically meets in June.