AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY - INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS (WITH EMPHASIS ON RICE)

It is well understood that the biological performance of agricultural crops is affected by soil, temperature, rainfall, and day length. As a consequence, genetic improvements in plants are location specific to a considerable extent. This, in turn, has implications for the design of agricultural research systems and for agricultural extension activi ties as well. An index for inter-location crop performance differences based on crop yield trial data is developed in this paper. This index measures the geo-climate ''distance'' or differential between two reg ions. An application to rice production, utilizing international yield trial data, is reported. The study of rice productivity in India indi cates that a state or region in India benefits relatively little from rice research undertaken in another state or region when there is a si gnificant geo-climate distance between the regions. Most technology tr ansfer between regions is thus indirect in that it depends on the adap tive research capacity in the receiving regions.